The lender, which is currently working through the process to gain its banking licence to become a pure covered bond bank, has recruited Liz Moore and Simon Thompson from Atom Bank and Virgin Money respectively.
It said the strategic hires were part of its plan to use technology and forward-thinking staff to drive a mortgage process which puts customer experience at the centre of its design.
Both Moore and Thompson have wide experience in lending and operations, with a focus on efficient technology-led lending and process re-engineering for efficiency and consumer experience.
Moore was fundamental at Atom in building the lending operations and underwriting functions from the ground up, to several billion pounds of written lending balances, underpinned by automated decisioning, streamlined processing and data driven validation processes.
Thompson was head of mortgage operations at Virgin Money from 2018. In this role he managed teams in Newcastle upon Tyne, Glasgow and Leeds and was responsible for the full end-to-end mortgage customer journey. Prior to that, he was Virgin Money’s chief underwriter for six years.
Colin Bell, COO and co-founder of Perenna said: “We approached Liz and Simon based on our vision to create a customer centric, and technology driven approach to lending as it matched their skills and experience.
“Once they heard about our strategy towards lending and our bond backed long term fixed rate mortgage concept they quickly decided they wanted to be part of both building Perenna and bringing it to life at the creative stages.
“These quality senior and complimentary hires also show that Perenna is serious about building a truly remote Fintech bank, recruiting the best people, not restricting recruitment by geography, and creating Perenna work pods around the country.
“Personally, having studied economics in Newcastle upon Tyne, having a Perenna work pod there brought back fond memories of my time living there.”
Perenna continues to progress well with the bank application process and is working towards having products in the market in late summer.
Moore, said: “I’m thrilled to be part of a team so committed to delivering true transformation to the UK mortgage market; ripping up the rule book, fully leveraging data and technology to create lending products that truly work for customers not just now, or for the next couple of years but through their life of homeownership, and all the events that come with it!”
Thompson added: “I am delighted to be joining such a brilliant team. After speaking to Colin and hearing about Perenna’s ambitions to bring such a compelling customer proposition to the mortgage market, it was an easy decision for me to make the move.
“The ambition of the team to combine a technology-led customer experience, together with an innovative funding model is unique in the UK and I firmly believe Perenna will be well placed to disrupt the market, especially for those customer groups who are currently underserved and will benefit from this refreshing approach.”
