East Anglia: Saffron Building Society celebrates mortgage growth

An East Anglian building society is celebrating strong half-year mortgage growth.

Saffron Building Society, the largest building society serving the East of England, has seen a 97% increase in gross lending for the six months to June 2012, compared to the previous year.

It has appointed Colin Snowdon to the newly-created position of executive partner, mortgage strategy.

Chief executive Jon Hall said: “We’re pleased to have appointed Colin Snowdon, a recognised industry expert and someone I have known and respected for a number of years.

“We understand the increasing importance of innovation in the mortgage market and the need to continue to build on our specialist, bespoke approach to mortgages.”

“It’s great to have such an experienced individual on the team.”

Mr Snowdon said he was “excited” to be working with Saffron Building Society.

“There’s currently not enough diversity in the UK mortgage market. The “big six” lenders dominate the vanilla space, accounting for around 90% of gross lending. That can’t be good for consumers – or indeed for those lenders themselves.

“There’s lots of talk about the need for more competition and diversity and therefore I hope people recognise the important and innovative role regional building societies play, and will increasingly play in the market. Saffron already has a strong, specialist mortgage offering and I look forward to helping them in developing it further.”

Mr Snowdon has significant CEO level experience over 25 years. His most recent role was launching Aldermore Bank’s residential mortgage business.