Honours and gongs

Here we are, mid-February and the first big industry event of the year is already behind us – the Mortgage Strategy Awards took place last week in the magisterial surroundings of the Grosvenor House Hotel in London’s glittering Park Lane.

A stalwart among awards events, I hear it succeeded in attracting large numbers of sponsors and table hosts prepared to be parted with valuable budget pounds in return for an evening of glad-handing, back-slapping and perhaps even a little posturing and posing.

I say I hear it succeeded because I was unable to attend in person. It was unavoidable, but I was sad not to be able to join my colleagues and an excellent array of broker and media guests on the Omni Capital table. I’m told the food was pretty good too, and that Gaby Logan made for an engaging and fetching hostess.

We didn’t win anything this year but weren’t expecting to. Our distribution strategy – through a carefully-defined but limited panel of specialist packagers and brokers – means Omni doesn’t have the same type of direct presence as some of our competitors among the smaller broker and introducer firms whose votes can ensure regular shortlistings. But does it matter?

I think it does. We all like to be winners, and the fact people bother to vote for their favourite lender, intermediary, valuer or whatever should be acknowledged and appreciated. To be voted ‘best’ in your particular area of expertise is an achievement of which to be proud. The only caveat I’d apply is, that for it to be meaningful, the selection and judging process should be fair, transparent and objective.

While Omni came away from W1 empty-handed last Wednesday (if not empty-stomached), we received some rather delightful news a few days earlier. To our surprise, we heard we had been shortlisted in the Residential Financier of the Year category for the RESI Awards 2013.

While not particularly well-known among traditional finance brokers and distributors, the RESI events are fast developing a good reputation among developers, investors and funding providers in the residential property sector. Its flagship conference is held in September, preceded by the awards themselves in May.

I wouldn’t normally make too much of a fuss about a simple shortlisting, but our modest success in the case of RESI is especially pleasing as we have been nominated alongside the likes of Aviva, M&G Investments and Barclays Bank. In the cause of completeness, I should also acknowledge that one of our peer competitors has also been shortlisted, but I won’t grant them anymore free publicity than that!

Pause for a moment and consider: a specialist bridging lender(s) is competing for a prestigious industry honour in the company of blue-chip, mainstream giants. Would that have happened just two or three years ago? I suspect not. So what does it tell us about contemporary bridging and its power to challenge the mainstream?

Rather a lot, I would have thought. Off the back of this – and, of course, other ongoing improvements – bridging should no longer be afraid to show its face; or allow itself to be spoken of as anything other than a legitimate and important part of the property finance community. We’re lending where the banks won’t or can’t; and even though there’s much still to be done to lift the sector fully into its rightful place, it’s very satisfying to see bridging finally receive the attention it merits.

So win or lose on 1st May, the Omni Capital team will leave the London Hilton (Park Lane again) with its head held high (albeit on slightly unsteady feet) feeling we have struck a small but significant blow for all of us interested in the future of bridging and short term lending.