Over the last year or two, many new bridging lenders have entered the market, but there could be a shortage of experienced professionals to work for these lenders. According to Tom Belger, writing for BridgingAndCommercial.co.uk
“There is a fear that the pool of talented professionals within the bridging finance sector is becoming thinly stretched, which could make it harder and more expensive to recruit and expand.”
Belger believes that there are not enough new young skilled professionals to work for lenders. Typically, someone will leave a lender to set up their own bridging business and take senior staff members with them. The consequence of this is that many lenders may be recruiting less experienced people with no specialist knowledge of the bridging finance sector. This means that they need to invest in staff training. Some lenders are recruiting ex-employees of major banks that have been made redundant because of high street bank branch closures. These ex-bankers will tend to have the financial knowledge and skills useful in their new role working for bridging lenders. If the number of skilled staff decreases, lenders will probably have to pay higher wages to recruit the best experienced personnel. It is possible that some small lenders will merge and not need as many staff. The consensus amongst lenders is that they will adapt through effective recruiting policies and investment in training so that they can continue to offer a top-class customer service to bridging brokers and lenders.
