“Shape Credit Decisions. Influence Policy. Drive Excellence”
At Castle Trust Bank, we're committed to doing things differently. As an innovative challenger bank, we combine specialist lending expertise with a customer-first approach to deliver outstanding outcomes for our customers, brokers and partners.
The role and what you’ll be doing:
We're looking for an experienced Property Credit Manager to join our team. This is a unique opportunity to take ownership of complex credit decisions, influence lending policy, and play a key role in maintaining strong governance and risk management across our property lending portfolio.
With delegated authority of up to £5million, you'll be trusted to make sound lending decisions while acting as a key bridge between our Front Line and Risk functions.
This role is based in our Basingstoke office on a hybrid basis working 4 days in the office and 1 day from home.
Credit Underwriting & Decision Making
- Assess and approve property lending proposals within a delegated mandate of up to £5 million.
- Ensure lending decisions align with risk appetite, lending policy and regulatory requirements.
- Deliver robust, balanced credit assessments across a range of specialist property lending products.
Escalations & Referrals
- Act as the primary referral point for cases outside delegated authority.
- Present recommendations and rationale to senior stakeholders and relevant approval committees.
- Support timely, commercially balanced decision making on complex cases.
Stakeholder Management
- Build strong relationships across Origination, Operations and Risk functions.
- Act as a trusted adviser on policy interpretation and credit risk matters.
- Influence decision making through expert technical knowledge and sound judgement.
Policy Ownership & Governance
- Own the ongoing review and development of lending policy.
- Ensure policies remain aligned to regulatory requirements, market conditions and risk strategy.
- Communicate policy updates and support consistent application across the business.
- Contribute to governance forums, audits and risk reviews.
Underwriting Audit & Quality Assurance
- Conduct regular reviews of underwriting decisions to ensure consistency and policy adherence.
- Identify trends, development opportunities and areas for process improvement.
- Provide coaching, feedback and recommendations to continuously improve underwriting quality.
- Support the maintenance of underwriting mandates, audit programmes and risk registers.
What you’ll bring:
We are looking for someone with strong analytical and credit decision-making skills, excellent attention to detail, and the confidence to challenge constructively while building strong stakeholder relationships. You'll be highly organised, risk-aware and proactive, with experience using data and MI to support decisions, a commitment to strong governance standards, and a track record of driving continuous improvement and operational efficiency.
In addition, you will have:
Essential
- Strong technical underwriting experience across Buy-to-Let, Bridging and Specialist Residential lending.
- Proven credit risk assessment and lending decision-making capability within delegated mandates.
- Experience operating within lending policies, governance frameworks and regulatory environments.
- Previous underwriting experience with responsibility for coaching, mentoring or quality assurance activities.
- Demonstrable first-line risk ownership, including managing risks, controls, incidents and remediation actions.
- Experience managing service levels, pipelines and priorities within a fast-paced lending environment.
- Understanding of FCA, PRA, AML and wider regulatory requirements.
- Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills.
- Degree-level qualification or equivalent professional experience.
Why join Castle Trust Bank?
- Competitive salary
- Performance bonus (based on individual and company performance)
- Generous contributory pension through Hargreaves Lansdown
- Life Assurance
- 25 days’ holiday + option to buy/sell 5 days
- Additional paid volunteering day
- Private healthcare through Equipsme (includes cash back for Dental and Optical treatment)
- Free access to BHSF Rise EAP to support colleague health and wellbeing
- Gym discounts
- Season ticket travel loans (if applicable)
- A supportive, inclusive culture where your work has real impact
Caught your attention? If so, we’d love to talk to you and tell you more about what it’s like to work at Castle Trust Bank - The Place To Work!
Castle Trust Bank is an equal opportunity employer where we celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all our colleagues to thrive. We welcome applications from all and will not discriminate against any status/characteristic protected by law and will always base our decisions on merit.
We are proud to support people with disabilities and are committed to be a Disability Confident employer. If you are a person with a disability and meet the minimum criteria for the role you will be offered an interview. Should you require any reasonable adjustment to support you in your application for one of our opportunities, please contact talent@castletrust.co.uk