The lender revealed it was recruiting two new business development advisers (BDAs) who would be supporting the webchat function and helping brokers with their questions about new business applications.

Meanwhile, Accord is also on the lookout for three new telephone business development managers (TBDMs) to help support brokers in more areas of the UK.

The roles will be home-based and the successful applicants will be responsible for managing broker relationships via telephone, email and webchat.

Finally, 21 new underwriters will be recruited over the coming weeks to further boost the team and ensure that service levels remain high and turnaround times stay as short as possible.

The recruitment drive comes after the lender recorded its busiest four months in its 17-year history. It said, with demand still higher than pre-pandemic levels, and the latest lockdown providing brokers with more uncertainty, additional headcount would be needed to maintain the highest service levels in 2021.

During the last year webchat has become the primary form of inbound communication, experiencing an increase of 286% with an average satisfaction score of 9.4% in 2020. The new BDAs will support the webchat function amongst their other roles.

Jeremy Duncombe, managing director of Accord Mortgages said: “Our focus, both before the pandemic and during has been about supporting brokers to the best of our ability and increasing capacity is key to sustaining our service capabilities.

“The last year has demonstrated that technology has improved processes, with webchat being a prime example of responding quickly and effectively to broker queries. Working remotely has also been incredibly successful and so we are confident the new TBDM roles can be performed from across the UK.

“We remain fully committed to face-to-face meetings with our brokers and key lending partners, however the efficiencies we’ve seen by working from home will also help evolve our BDM role to balance virtual and, when it is safe to do so, physical meetings.

“Although the last year has definitely been challenging, and there is still more to come as we start the new year, we are confident we have everything in place to adapt to the conditions and continue to support both our people and our brokers.”