Simrat held previous roles at Precise Mortgages - with eight years as senior underwriter - and Landbay, where she spent three years.
Afin Bank's products are primarily designed for Africans living in the UK, who can find it difficult to get a mortgage from mainstream lenders because of their visa status or lack of credit history - however, the lender says its products may also be suitable for UK nationals, including high-net worth professionals and self-employed borrowers.
Gill said: “The opportunity struck me as truly unique. I appreciate that we will be focusing on borrowers who are not specifically served by the mainstream market and that our goal is to make customers feel like individuals, rather than just numbers.”
“It is actually refreshing to take on a role that involves more manual underwriting, rather than being fully automated. With our approach we can review factors such as visa status, credit and income, that other lenders would probably reject as a risk because they can’t validate them using a completely automated approach.”
Swaraj Dada, Afin Bank’s head of credit, said:
“Simrat brings a lot of experience of the specialist mortgage sector, but her knowledge and passion for manual underwriting brings an extra dimension. Afin Bank’s aim is to make getting a mortgage as effortless as possible, so Simrat’s expertise will help us develop an underwriting approach that puts the customer first, while still being efficient and reliable.”
