Mortgage Underwriter

At The Stafford Building Society, we manually underwrite all our mortgage business.

As a mandated underwriter, you will use your experience, knowledge, and judgement in assessing and underwriting mortgage applications.

Overview:

The Society is a specialist mortgage lender which primarily deals with applicants with complex income and property needs.

Underwriters play a critical role within our Mortgage Underwriting Team applying their knowledge and judgement to individual cases whilst ensuring that mortgage applications are underwritten in accordance with the Society\’s risk appetite and Lending Policy and Criteria

You will deliver sound customer outcomes with a documented rationale.

Key Responsibilities

Underwriting and Decision-Making

· Responsible for the review and ongoing ownership of mortgage applications, through to execution of mandate at formal offer stage.

· Evaluate all mortgage applications for creditworthiness, repayment ability, and risk.

· Analyse and verify applicant documentation to support the underwriting of each case, including income, credit reports, tax returns, and valuation reports.

· Ensure loans meet with our current Lending Policy and Criteria, as well as meeting regulatory requirements.

· Use skill set and knowledge to explore feasible options within lending policy appetite to facilitate a manual approach to Underwriting.

· Present cases to the Society\’s Credit Committee for consideration

Risk Management

· Approve, decline, or conditionally approve loans based on a manual review of the case and thorough risk analysis.

· Demonstrate strong analytical skills which supports sound decision making to provide good member outcomes.

· Identify and mitigate potential risks while balancing the Society\’s lending objectives.

· Maintain Financial Crime awareness alongside the requirement to report suspicious activity or mortgage fraud to the MLRO.

· Work within the Society\’s Risk Management Framework, including all relevant policies, and exercise key controls to minimise risks.

Process Improvement

· Identify inefficiencies in underwriting processes and suggest improvements.

· Stay updated on industry trends, and best practices to enhance productivity and decision-making.

· Contribute and support the ongoing development of Society procedures and processes;

· Contribute and support the ongoing development of lending policy and criteria.

Stakeholder Management

· Effectively build positive relationships with internal stakeholders, solicitors, valuers and other third parties

· Embracing the Society\’s values and promoting them effectively alongside the society brand.

To be successful in the role, you must be able to demonstrate:

• Experience of working with various income streams, e.g. employed and self-employed
• A minimum of 3 years experience of current mortgage underwriting with a mandated authority

Desirable skills & experience:

• Experience of self-build lending
• Understanding of accounts
• Understanding of property characteristics and legal matters

Please note that this role is hybrid, with Stafford-based office working required 2 days each week.

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent

Pay: £41,000.00-£43,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Casual dress
• Company events
• Company pension
• Enhanced maternity leave
• Enhanced paternity leave
• Free flu jabs
• Health & wellbeing programme
• Life insurance
• Paid volunteer time
• Private dental insurance
• Private medical insurance
• Sick pay
• Work from home

Application question(s):

• What mandate have you held in your current / previous role(s)?

Experience:

• Underwriting: 3 years (required)

Licence/Certification:

• CeMap (required)

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Stafford ST16 2JH