Over the past six months, Medianett has reported on a number of movers and shakers in the industry, however with a market becoming even more crowded, the competition is not just about best rates or service. It’s also about the staff.

Two companies which have stood out so far this year with rapid staff expansion would have to be United Trust Bank and Wellesley Finance.

Specialist lender UTB revealed it had appointed a number of ex-Central Trust employees over a number of months, such as Robert Owen, Buster Tolfree and most recently, Jigar Patel, to its newly created Specialist Mortgages division.

Wellesley Finance made waves in the bridging market this year following its announcement that it had hired Thomas Clark, former Regional Development Manager at Shawbrook Bank as its new Head of bridging.

Wellesley has since also hired ex-Loans Warehouse Head of Bridging, Jamie Oxley, as Senior Bridging Loan Officer, and is set to further bolster its team over the next few months.

Other companies that have made big appointment announcements this year include key figure Lee Carling joining bridging lender West One Loans as Head of Collections in April, with an aim for him to help write the next chapter of its growth story.

June saw ex-GE Money Home Lending Manager Mark Rookyard being snapped up by Blemain Group as its new Regional Development Director, Gareth Jones job jumping from Aldermore to Platform Black and three new Executives, David Courtneidge, Fran Bos and Jim Harrow jumping ship to business lender Merchant Money.

Roma Finance also bolstered its team in June with two big name managers, Steve Heaton and Marley Clarke, who previously worked at Paragon and Aldermore respectively.

Last month, specialist lender Dragonfly Property Finance hired ex-banker Charlotte Williams who travelled across the world from Australia where she worked for a bank in Sydney called Bankwest.

This followed Aldermore’s announcement that its Deputy CEO and Group Commercial Director, Mark Stephens, is set to leave the bank by the end of the year, resulting in Charles Haresnape being promoted to Group Managing Director, Mortgages.

With the last six months consisting of major movement, it will be interesting to see what the rest of the year has in store.