Smart Money Loans is urging lenders not to forget the intermediary community north of the border.

Smart Money Loans, which has a fully autonomous Glasgow office to cater specifically for Scottish brokers, believes that although lenders have opened up their offerings to Scotland, they still need to adjust their propositions to be more inclusive of the rest of the UK.

SML’s business development manager in Scotland, Jack Robertson, said that while brokers in Scotland recognise the progress being made in terms of access to funding, lenders still seem to regard Scotland as a bit of an afterthought.

Robertson said: “I have been working with Scottish brokers for four years in my role with SML and one of the biggest complaints has been that they would like to see more lenders establish a presence in Scotland.

“At the moment, SML is one of a very small number of distributors prepared to invest directly in Scotland.

“The brokers really appreciate having a local connection with whom they can communicate for assistance and where they can see their cases being dealt with.”

“We are starting to see some lenders take a more active interest. Masthaven made SML their first partner to take their new products into Scotland earlier this year and we are working with other lenders to highlight the opportunities in Scotland.”

Masthaven Secured Loans’ newly appointed sales director, Paul Brett, said: “We believe that brokers in Scotland have a major role to play in bringing the secured loans message to their clients.

“We want to support distributors like SML who have made a positive step to engage brokers in Scotland with a Glasgow office and sales people on the road.

“Our share of business in Scotland is continuing to grow and we look forward to doing more work jointly with Smart Money Loans.”