overseeing Platform’s survival after the precipitous market crash that followed summer 2007.
“I saw a lot of change through those 11 years as managing director,” says Tweedy. “Platform started off as private equity- owned, then got sold to Britannia, then merged with Verso, which was a huge change and we grew in 18 months from about eighty people to about 300 people. “That was in 2003 and then clearly the
credit crunch hit in 2007 so it’s not been the steadiest of periods, there’s been a lot of challenge and change – but it’s been an exciting journey.”
evoluTion
As in sport so in business, tactics and strategy evolve. Tweedy gives the impression that it’s not about the change itself, rather it’s about what you learn from it. Having been part of the mortgage market through two recessions, he says - though the causes and consequences of both have been very different - there are similar lessons to be learned from both. “I’d say be cautious, don’t run with
the herd, be prudent. Understand your risks and concentrate on managing and understanding the back book properly. Platform launched at a terrible time in early nineties when self-cert really ran away with itself and only a handful of centralised lenders survived that cycle.” He points to Platform’s survival this
time around too. Many of the intermediary based lenders that launched in the early 2000s have since been benched, relegated to another business stream or kicked off the circuit altogether. Platform is one of a handful of lenders that has survived through it all.
“I think that was because there was an element of caution and prudence; not competing in areas that we weren’t comfortable competing in. When the market was extremely hot and loads of new lenders were piling in and everyone was doing everything, we actually pulled back. “We didn’t set our aspirations on size for size’s sake; we were focused on lending and being in the market, but at the cautious end of the market.” That attitude remains today with Platform, perhaps more so after its parent Britannia Building Society merged with the
Co-operative Financial Services group in August last year.
“Britannia was supportive of Platform - even when the market started to turn. Some of our competitors had big parents which shut them down. But Britannia stayed with Platform and had faith in us and a vision for the future.” And it’s that future that Tweedy is now focused on and engaging with. “We want to leverage the capability we have in the intermediary market into the mainstream prime sector.”
prime Time, almoST Until the credit crunch hit, Platform, along with many of the intermediary only lenders in the market, focused its lending on the specialist sector offering sub-prime, self-certification and some buy-to-let. The funding drought and severe retrenchment in the mortgage market as a whole, together with the influence of its new parent, the Co-operative, has refocused
Platform’s model. It’s now prime time for the lender says Tweedy. “In 2009 following market research and a full review we launched Platform as a dedicated mainstream provider,” he says. “The Co-operative is geared around having a democratic say in the business and benefiting its members, society and local communities, which is quite different from other businesses in the banking sector.
“So the question for Platform, as part of the merger, was how we brought it in to that environment to create something unique within the intermediary market. “A lot of the research we did ahead of deciding to take Platform into the mainstream market pointed to the fact that there was a gap in the intermediary market for a lender which really put intermediaries first. A lot of work was put in before the launch to make sure that the proposition that was created walked that talk.
mortGaGe introducer JULY 2010 35
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