The Intermediary – December 2025 - Flipbook - Page 14
In Profile.
TAB
Jessica O’Connor speaks with Rikesh Saujani, CCO at TAB,
about growth strategy and a transformative 2025
A
s TAB continues its evolution
in the specialist and mortgage
markets, CCO Rikesh Saujani
is working closely with the
senior leadership team to shape
TAB’s commercial strategy, strengthen funding
partnerships and support the development of
new opportunities across the group.
Speaking with The Intermediary, Saujani
reflects on the year, and outlines the
careful balance TAB is striking between
growth and responsible lending.
A milestone year
2025 may have been marked by
uncertainty for the industry, but for TAB,
it has been quietly transformative. Saujani
says: “We’ve had a tremendous year. We’ve
secured a £500m funding line. That has taken
a lot of work, and it sets out the stall for what
we’re trying to do as a business.”
This goes beyond the immediate boost to
lending capacity. For TAB, it represents validation
from institutional partners and a clear signal that
its underwriting and operational foundations can
support a much larger platform.
For Saujani, the real challenge of 2025 has been
ensuring that the internal engine of the business
– its people and systems – can evolve at the same
pace as its ambitions.
“Origination volumes have been consistent
for us,” he notes. “We’ve been trying to match
our processes to scale with that funding without
compromising our standards. It’s not just about
the numbers and what you’re doing, it’s about
doing it well and providing quality.”
Human-first approach
While much of the industry has raced toward
automation, often under cost and efficiency
pressures, Saujani believes that specialist lending
remains fundamentally a people business,
especially when borrower circumstances are
increasingly complex and market conditions can
shift rapidly.
For Saujani, technology should not be a
substitute for expertise and the ability to
understand the nuances within each deal. Instead,
it should act as an enabler that removes friction,
reduces administrative burden, and frees skilled
professionals to focus on underwriting and
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The Intermediary | December 2025
RIKESH
SAUJANI
relationship-building. However, this does not
mean shunning innovation. TAB is actively bringing
in new systems, but only where they support the
experience of its team.
TAB has concentrated efforts on enhancing its
internal processes. This internal evolution is not
about uprooting what already works, but about
building additional structure and clarity
around the journey borrowers take when
they engage with TAB.
This includes “bringing in automation
where it works.” Routine administration
and data processing are chief among
the tasks being streamlined, allowing
underwriters to remain focused on the
all-important decision-making.
But Saujani is the first to acknowledge
that internal efficiencies can only get the
business so far. A faster, smoother process
requires borrowers to be equipped with the right
expectations – and the right information – from
the outset.
He explains: “We’re ultimately trying to simplify
our borrower journey and make it clearer, ensuring
they’ve got the information they need
ahead of time. That way, when the
applications come in, they know exactly
what information to provide us. That
starts the process really well, because
we have those internal support tools which take
us through the process a lot cleaner and faster.
It means we’re not wasting time asking for more
information or looking for missing documents;
we’re actually working on the case itself.”
This focus on clarity and smarter processes
naturally extends into TAB’s wider technology
strategy. While the business is incorporating
more automation into its operations, Saujani
approaches artificial intelligence (AI) with
a measured scepticism. For him, the most
transformative technologies are those that
integrate quietly and effectively, not that make the
loudest claims.
In an era when “AI-powered” has become a
marketing term as much as a technical descriptor,
Saujani is wary of innovation for innovation’s sake.
He believes that much of what is touted as AI is
merely data handling or automated organisation.
“We’re using it as part of our overall business
engine that helps us to do things better, faster and
more reliably,” he says.
