FR: Please can you tell us a little bit about your background and your role at e4 Strategic UK?
I’ve spent over 30 years in financial services and PropTech, with time spent at several lenders including the likes of Lloyds and Bradford & Bingley, and then on the supplier side at Legal & General and Hometrack before joining e4 Strategic. That experience gave me a strong appreciation of how vital it is for lenders and technology providers to work hand-in-hand, and how much can be achieved when solutions are built around collaboration and the real needs of customers.
At e4 Strategic, my role as head of customer management is to make sure that connection stays front and centre. I spend a lot of time with lenders and conveyancers, listening to their frustrations with the current system and translating those insights into how VERSA develops. My job is to ensure that when business adopt VERSA, it doesn’t just look good on paper, it genuinely makes their working lives easier, improves collaboration, and delivers measurable improvements to the mortgage journey.
FR: You launched VERSA in August — can you explain the concept behind it?
VERSA was created to fix the stage of the mortgage process that has been overlooked for too long: the journey from offer through to completion. During my time in lending there was an absolute fixation on the application to offer times and while the front end of the process has now been transformed, offer to completion has remained manual, fragmented and slow. That’s why we’ve been working with some of the UK’s leading lenders and conveyancers to build something different.
At its core, VERSA provides one shared digital workflow where everyone, by that I mean lenders and conveyancers, can see the same real-time picture of progress. Instead of updates scattered across mortgage platforms, CSM systems, emails and phone calls, cases are driven by intelligent milestones. Post-valuation queries (PVQs), which are one of the biggest bottlenecks, are handled digitally with structured automation. Documents are validated and signed electronically. And because VERSA has been designed as an open cloud platform, it integrates with existing systems through APIs, meaning adoption is flexible and straightforward.
The goal is simple – transparency, less friction and fall through, reduced duplication will provide a smoother and potentially a faster transaction. For lenders, that means better oversight and reduced costs. For conveyancers, it means easier communication and less admin. And for buyers, it means a far less stressful homebuying experience.
FR: What has been the feedback so far from lenders and conveyancers?
The most satisfying part of my role is hearing how VERSA changes things on the ground. Conveyancers have told me that having a direct communication line into a lender will transform how their teams work, giving them clarity without the endless chasing. Lenders like the fact they no longer have to wait for manual updates to know where cases are, they can see instantly where each is on the journey, and for the first time have true oversite on their panel performance using multiple metrics.
One of the biggest reactions we’ve had is around post-valuation queries. Lenders and law firms who’ve seen how quickly VERSA can cut turnaround times - from weeks down to days and in some cases hours - have described it as a breakthrough. That’s when you know you’re not just introducing technology for technology’s sake but solving problems that have been holding the industry back for years.
FR: What are the biggest challenges facing the industry in improving speed and conversion from offer to completion?
From my conversations, the same themes keep coming up. There’s a lack of transparency as too many parties are left in the dark about where a case really stands, which creates stress and uncertainty. A lack of direct communication into the lenders, creating inefficiencies and timelines drag because processes are fragmented and manual, with queries or updates being delayed or even lost in inboxes. Finally, there’s inconsistency as quality varies widely across conveyancing panels, leading to uneven service levels and unpredictable customer experiences.
Specific issues like slow PVQ resolution or unregistered charges after completion are especially painful. They not only delay transactions but also create real risk and cost for lenders. These aren’t new problems, they’ve been around for years, but they’ve never been addressed in such a joined-up way.
FR: How does VERSA address these challenges?
This is exactly why we built VERSA. By replacing emails with structured, digital workflows, it makes queries faster and more reliable to resolve. By using intelligent milestones, it gives everyone - from lenders to buyers - a clear view of progress, which reduces chasing and improves certainty. By digitising documents and signatures, it cuts out duplication and errors.
We’ve also introduced specific tools to deal with long-standing issues like unregistered charges, so lenders aren’t exposed to unnecessary risk. And because VERSA is modular and cloud-based, firms can start small, without any need for direct integration with something like our PVQ tool and scale up to the full platform when ready.
For me, as head of customer management, the important thing is that VERSA has been shaped by the people who actually use it. It’s not about disruption for disruption’s sake; it’s about empowering lenders and conveyancers with a system that saves them time, reduces stress and ultimately delivers a better experience for their customers.
