About the team

Downing's Specialist Lending Team focuses on providing senior debt to residential developers, with a focus on debt amounts of between £2m-30m. We also provide wholesale facilities to other lenders. The team is made up of 13 individuals across business development and portfolio management, and the right candidate won't be afraid to get involved in any aspect of the business. The role should appeal to candidates with a background in either debt funds and/or commercial/corporate banking. Residential development finance experience is preferred.

Role and responsibilities

The role would sit within Portfolio Management and is to assist the team with the efficient execution of new loans in addition to the ongoing daily operational management, monitoring and reporting of existing deals.

Your responsibilities will include:

Reporting: Assisting in the production of required reporting both internally and for external parties.

• Produce weekly Cashflow Forecasts across the live book. This will be enabled by discussions with the Relationship Leads and/or Portfolio Managers.
• Assume the role of Power Bl (Loan reporting system) champion.
• Create and distribute minutes from team meetings as appropriate.
• Attendance in Investment Committee meeting acting as secretariat, ensuring the timely production of meeting minutes.
• Assisting in the production of regular (weekly/monthly/quarterly) and ad hoc reports to be provided to both internal and external stakeholders and teams.
• Undertake the creation and dissemination of the End of Month Reports; effectively recording updates in relation to the state of the loans incorporating any drawdowns, repayment, increases or extensions.
• The timely delivery and assistance with other ad hoc requests and tasks from internal and external parties, as the business deems necessary.

Operational: Day to day operational requirements

• Maintain accurate Dynamics records for the portfolio of deals; live and historic. This will incorporate updating loan records relating to the deal structures and also the ongoing risk aspects (RAG status; Construction Risk, Budget Risk and Exit Risk) of each loan recording details provided by Relationship Leads and/or Portfolio Managers.
• Ongoing responsibility for identifying emerging risks within portfolio loans and raising them with the wider property Team to ensure the performance and tight controls are maintained across the portfolio.
• Maintain accurate iHub (Pipeline system) records aided by Relationship Leads and Portfolio Managers.
• Organise the production of internal payment documentation via Dynamic to 'awaiting signoff stage'.
• The timely and accurate allocation and reconciliation of monies with internal Downing departments as required.
• Undertaking, in conjunction with the wider team, client/professional visits and the recording of findings, as necessary.
• Manage Late Book Loan updates and highlight soon to expire loans and record strategies that Relationship Leads are to adopt.
• Ensuring data accuracy and error-checking is undertaken in a timely and efficient manner.
• Provide relevant feedback to other internal Downing teams to enable system improvements and production of Fund reporting updates.
• Assistance in the effective management of third-party professionals including valuers, surveyors and solicitors including the process of the collation of fee quotations, preparing and issuing instruction letters and liaising with Team as required.
• Ensuring KYC processes are accurately met and completed to the satisfaction of Downing's internal processes and timescales.
• Acting as an additional point of contact for Borrowers throughout the life cycle of the loan from Investment Committee (IC) approval through to redemption, including ad hoc requests, the production of loan statements and audit requests.
• In conjunction with the Portfolio Managers undertake reviews of Valuation reports and Monitoring Surveyor reports.
• In conjunction with the Portfolio Managers, project management of new loan deals once they have been approved by the Investment committee with accurate deal data being recorded on relevant systems.

Key skills and experience‍

The ideal candidate will have the following:

• Excellent attention to detail
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Experience of stakeholder and project management
• A self-starter who has the desire to learn about the business and our products.
• Experience within residential property development lending and bridging space desirable.
• Working knowledge of related legal matters and due diligence desirable.
• Strong sense of ownership and task completion/deadline-driven.
• Ability to manage a fluid and varied workload independently and within a small team, as required.
• Inquisitive approach and problem-solving mentality.

Personal Profile

• ‍Passionate about what you do - you are always happy to roll up your sleeves.
• ‍Team player – have fun! We do our best to cultivate an open, honest, hard-working but fun culture at Downing. ‍‍
• ‍Customer oriented - you are approachable, friendly and professional whilst working diligently. Nothing is too much trouble.
• ‍Assertive and focus on execution – you make things happen.
• ‍Eloquent – you can explain complex things in simple, relevant terms, and in good English.

Pay and benefits

For the successful candidate, we will put together an attractive reward package that will include:

• Competitive salary dependent on experience and qualifications
• Discretionary bonus
• Pension scheme
• Health insurance 
• Life assurance
• Income Protection
• Death in service
• Additional social perks

Additional details

All candidates must be eligible to work in the UK or have a working visa.

To understand what information we collect about you, how we will use it and for what purpose, please read our privacy notice.

We appreciate all interest in Downing and applications received, however please note we will only be able to contact the most suitable applicants.