Canada Life has appointed Shreyas Sridhar as managing director of bulk purchase annuities (BPA). He will also join the Canada Life UK executive committee and report to UK chief executive, Lindsay Rix-Broom. Sridhar joined Canada Life in February 2024 as business development director for its BPA business and prior to joining the firm, he spent eight years in roles within Legal & General’s pension risk transfer business, most recently as head of reinsurance and international development.

Hanley Economic Building Society has launched a new home renovation mortgage, replacing its previous light refurbishment mortgage. The product is designed to support borrowers making improvements to their home, rather than undertaking full-scale construction projects. The home renovation mortgage offers an initial variable discounted pay rate of 5.64% for two years, representing a 2.85% discount off the society’s SVR. Available up to 80% LTV for both purchase and remortgage purposes, the mortgage is interest only for the initial two-year term before reverting to a capital and interest repayment structure. The product comes with a £299 application fee and a £999 arrangement fee and there is no early repayment charge.

David Louw has been appointed team leader for intermediary success at Mortgage Brain. Louw started his mortgage career in estate agency and later moved into fintech, working with online broker and lender, Habito. More recently, he worked in mortgage operations at Better.co.uk, where he collaborated with product management to improve user experience, operational processes and digital workflows for brokers. In his new role, Louw will lead the intermediary success team, building key relationships and helping brokers to get the most from the company’s range of modules, while ensuring a smooth transition of users of The Key onto CRM Brain.

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