Simrat spent almost eight years as senior underwriter at Precise Mortgages and nearly three years with Landbay.

 The chance to work with customers who are often poorly served by the highly automated approach of mainstream lenders was what made the role at Afin Bank so appealing to her.

Simrat will be based in Birmingham, which will be home to the bank’s core functions such as credit and underwriting and customer service.

Commenting on her appointment, Simrat 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.

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“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, head of credit at Afin, added: “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.”