Josh joined Signature in August 2021, after graduating from Cardiff Metropolitan University, having studied Business & Management (Finance). As a member of our Lending Team, he helped progress deals, undertaking searches and managing the necessary electronic documentation to support loan applications from our increasingly busy client base.
Having gained valuable real-world experience, supporting our broker and property develop clients achieve their objectives, Josh was promoted to the role of Associate Relationship Manager in January 2024.
Josh delivered on the faith shown in his abilities by the senior management team, quickly bringing in his first deal – a £400k development loan to support a broker’s client who is building a 4-bedroom detached dormer bungalow on an acquired garden plot.
This is the second deal for this client, who despite not progressing a previous project was so impressed with Josh’s service, they came straight to him for their next project.
Reflecting the benefit of our approach to funding, the client stated their intention to form a long-term relationship with Signature, which is good news for us and Josh.
In this interview, we asked Josh a few questions to understand the change in his role, the market outlook and the highlights of his recent role, working more hands-on with clients.
Q: What is the difference between your old Client Relationship Executive [CRE] role and your new Associate Relationship Manager [ARM] role?
A: In my initial CRE role, I was working as a support for our Relationship Managers, helping them manage deals from application to completion, which was necessary given the increasing number of enquiries and deals they were dealing with. Completing credit checks, setting files up and monitoring progress on deals, gave me a lot of valuable knowledge, learning a lot from our experienced RM team.
The ARM role is the first step to becoming an RM, which is my ultimate aim. I am now meeting brokers, borrowers, visiting sites, generating enquiries and new business, all aspects of the role that I then manage. It’s a big responsibility managing my own cases from initial enquiry through to completion and then the critical step, redemption. It Is essentially the same role as an RM, but with a greater focus on developing my network and building expertise, whilst I continue to learn from the team. My focus at the moment is on building my connections, so that I have a good network of high-quality brokers able to feed in the good quality deal enquiries I need to progress.
Q: Who supports you and how much help do you get from the rest of team?
A: I have benefitted from being a CRE for two and half years and in that time, I learnt the deal process from start to finish, which has enabled me to do all of the processing work and necessary admin on my own, without the support of a CRE
Fortunately, our graduate trainee, Alex has helped by undertaking a few searches and opening some files whilst I have been out on the road visiting prospective development sites, which is helping him to learn the process and develop his career path.
Q: What’s the key to your success and what else do you need to do?
A: I am willing to learn from more experienced team members and I am not afraid to ask questions when I come across something challenging. The collective knowledge of the team here is remarkable, with almost every RM having decades of banking experience in their past.
I have worked closely with our CEO Tony, who maintains a very hands-on role within the business and Tom, who heads the in-house legal team and they have been both a help and an inspiration.
The important step in my development is growing my network of valuable contacts, who recognise the value Signature can offer their clients.
Q: What does the future hold for you and what do you need to do to step up to RM?
A: My next goal is to move up into a full RM position and to do so, I need to build my network of quality brokers, which will ensure I am able to consistently hit my targets and deliver on my key performance stats. Unfortunately for me, there is no substitute for experience and as Tony often says, there is no end to the learning, even he is still increasing his lending knowledge.
The growth of the business in recent years has been really impressive and very satisfying to be a part of, but now I want to see Signature continue to grow year on year and play my part in delivering more years of record growth.
Q: How is the market and how do prospects react to your new role?
A: I have had good feedback since moving in to this new role, both from external contacts and my colleagues. Brokers tell me how they like my responsiveness and my presence on deals. I always want to learn and visiting sites to meet prospects and understand their vison for a development, always goes down well. It demonstrates how we value relationships, rather than just numbers on a spreadsheet and that Signature is keen to understand clients and projects so we can get deals done.
The market is buoyant and we’re receiving interest for all our products, especially for ground up developments and office to resi conversions which remain popular reasons to seek our style of no-nonsense funding. We are seeing more development exits and refinancing deal, due to sales and refinancing both taking longer.
Q: Has the Lender’s Listen and Lunch event you hosted in Winchester proved successful?
A: Signature does not have significant coverage in the region, so the event in Winchester was helpful to meet brokers new to the Signature offering. It helped to strengthen an existing relationship I had and I have had enquiries from a number of the attendees. I am keen to do more of these events to support my plans to grow my network.
Q: Any final thoughts?
A: Signature is a great place to learn and understand the property finance industry. For anyone wanting to get into the sector, joining as a graduate CRE is a great place to start and there will always be openings in modern innovative lenders, such as Signature.