Avamore

Avamore scraps BDM model




Avamore Capital has announced a change in its origination process and hiring strategy.

This follows the confirmed departure of senior business development manager Francesca Woodhouse who is set to join Octane Capital mid-February.

The bridging and development lender plans to change its approach to origination whereby its relationship managers will originate, underwrite, execute and asset manage each transaction from start to finish.

Avamore has also revealed that it is in advanced discussions with a number of senior bridging and development professionals to join at principal level.

New hires at junior relationship manager level are due to be announced by the company in the coming weeks.

Zuhair Mirza, principal and head of origination at Avamore, added: “We have found that brokers and customers have preferred dealing with our team members that have also continued to manage their case beyond the initial enquiry stage.

“As many of our cases deal with a degree of complexity or challenge, having a single point of contact with some underwriting clout or decision-making influence at a credit level has resulted in a smoother journey for our customers.

“The BDM model works well in many bridging lenders, particularly those dealing with vanilla cases, but perhaps isn’t as well suited to ourselves where we provide a more bespoke solution."

Francesca joined Avamore in June 2017 following almost 15 years at HSBC and Clydesdale Bank.

Michael Dean, co-founder and principal at Avamore (pictured above), said: “Francesca’s new appointment at Octane is testament to her hard work and skill as a salesperson.

“I take great personal pride and satisfaction that we are gaining a reputation for developing talent as Francesca’s rapid progress has shown.

“Francesca came to us as an outsider to the industry with no contacts or relationships and almost overnight consistently generated tens of millions of quality enquiries each month, she was a great asset to the team.

“We wish her the very best for the future.”

Michael added: “Our new origination strategy is very exciting and is going to generate efficiencies and improved outcomes.

“With a direct line to credit members or underwriters, our brokers and borrowers will be able to achieve an even faster answer on their cases and an enhanced level of service from us from start to finish.

“Rather than the sales team acting as the first interaction with the customer and then being handed over to an underwriter that doesn’t always understand their needs, a dedicated team member will maintain contact throughout the duration of the loan, from underwriting to redemption."

All team members will have a relationship manger role from now on, enabling the entire team to have the opportunity to originate business and develop customer relationships for the long term.

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