Skipton Business Finance has appointed Dan Grainger as its new regional sales director for the North West. In this role, he will focus on developing opportunities for Skipton to deliver tailored working capital solutions to businesses across the region and will work with a network of introducers and brokers. Grainger has rejoined the firm after previously working at the company between 2017 and 2021. He has also held a number of senior roles at businesses including Lloyds Banking Group and Praetura Invoice Finance.

Vida has launched its new AI-powered chatbot designed to help brokers access lending criteria and product information. The chatbot, named Mobi, which is short for Mortgage Bot Intelligence, will be available 24/7 and is able to deliver instant answers to brokers’ most common questions. The tool, which was trained on Vida’s full suite of lending criteria, aims to help keep broker workflows moving.

Clydesdale Bank has enhanced its mortgage lending criteria for foreign nationals. The extended policy is set to support a number of different scenarios for foreign national clients who do not have indefinite leave to remain (ILR) to settled/pre-settled status. The bank has increased its maximum LTVs, extended the list of acceptable visas and has reduced the minimum time needed remaining on a visa. On a joint application, where one applicant has ILR but the other doesn’t, Clydesdale will lend up to 95% LTV, with no minimum income requirement. If no applicants hold ILR, it will lend up to 85% LTV with no minimum income requirement.

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