Two new underwriters for expanding Skipton International team

Thursday 30 January 2014

Skipton International has employed two new mortgage underwriters to help with its expanding lending business.

Paullette King and Laurelle May will take the local underwriting team up to six, and initially the pair will spend six months training and will also undertake the Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practice (CeMAP).

Channel Island educated Paullette and Laurelle are both experienced financial workers.  Paullette was most recently with Co-operative Bank where she spent the last 11 years as a mortgage administrator. Prior to this she was with Barclays. Laurelle was a client relationship manager with Close Finance, and has also worked for Barclays and NatWest.

Managing Director of Skipton International, Jim Coupe said the appointments reflect the increasing Channel islands’ business: "Last December we had a record month for new mortgage applications in Jersey, with our business over the whole year increasing by 27.5%. We’re expecting Jersey applications to overtake Guernsey’s this year, where we were the largest provider of new mortgages for the fourth year running.

One of the most important aspects of our business is that we are a Channel Islands’ bank and our underwriting decisions are taken locally by local people. I’m delighted that Paullette and Laurelle are joining our team for what is set to be a very busy year ahead."

Laurelle says she’s looking forward to joining Skipton International: "It is a really nice friendly team at Skipton. I had been looking for an opportunity like this and so I’m going to enjoy the challenge of continuing my learning, and to dealing with the range of clients that apply for mortgages."

Paullette says becoming an underwriter is a rewarding role: "I find it really interesting, everyone is different and I enjoy trying to make the application work for them. Making these decisions is a big responsibility, we have to lend responsibly and at the same time ensure we are doing the best we can for our potential clients."