The Intermediary – March 2026 - Flipbook - Page 52
In Profile.
Q&A
Jessica Bird speaks with Stuart Davidson, CCO at Redwood
Bank, to reflect on changes to the bank’s proposition, and
how it is preparing for an uncertain road ahead
S
tuart Davidson boasts over three
decades of banking experience,
including a long stint in retail banking,
primarily at Lloyds Bank, the Bank of
Ireland, and helping Charter Savings
get its banking licence. His role as CCO at Redwood
Bank came about due to a desire to “build
something from scratch,” using a broad spectrum
of experience in financial services.
In Q1 2026, Redwood Bank has made a
series of changes across its residential
and commercial investment offering,
including reduced rates and raised
procuration fees. Davidson sat down
with The Intermediary to discuss
the context for these changes, and
Redwood’s strategy for the year ahead.
Making changes
Tweaks to the product offering include: a 66%
increase to maximum loan portfolio sizes from
£6m to £10m across residential and commercial
investment mortgages; interest rates reduced;
higher single asset limits across all loan-tovalue (LTV) bands; and commercial interest-only
extended up to 20 years.
Davidson says: “Brokers will hopefully be
pleased, because they've got more deals that they
can bring to Redwood, due to the expansion of the
single asset and the overall portfolio limits.”
One ambition for this year is to broaden the
bank’s scope, both in terms of the types and size
of deals, as well as geographically, Davidson says:
“Some of the product changes simply allow us
to provide a better spread of business across the
whole of the UK. We're very strong in the North,
where we tend to punch above our weight, and
we feel that we can do a lot more business in the
Southern regions as well, where property prices
are generally higher and therefore customers
require larger mortgages. It’s important that we
have a proposition that can capture a wider net.”
Brokers do not need to be concerned about
plans to grow Redwood’s lending, he adds: “The
service won't be affected, and we are making
these changes because we have been listening
to [brokers]. They've been telling us that they
want us to have a more compelling commercial
proposition, and we just feel it's the right time
to dial that up in 2026. It's probably not more
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The Intermediary | March 2026
complicated than that, really. They just need to
know that we're here for them. In reality, Redwood
has been here all the time.”
Indeed, changes were also made in 2025,
which centred around service in particular. On
the residential buy-to-let (BTL) side, Redwood
brought the valuation further toward the start
of the lending application as part of a decision
in principle approach, to help speed up the
process for the customer.
This created a strategic “split model,
with optionality for our customers and
brokers.” Davidson explains: “Brokers
are comfortable with having the
residential lending application journey
being much more front-loaded with a
decision in principle, and the commercial
lending application path being as it was,
where we do the valuations towards the
end of the journey, once we've got the full
offer with the broker. This allows us to get
STUART
quick decisions on the residential side, and also
DAVIDSON
focus on the slightly more complex deals for
commercial, which just do take a little bit longer
just by their very nature.”
Commercial in focus
Having “deliberately spent some time focusing
on residential and buy-to-let” in recent years,
Redwood Bank is increasing its commercial
lending activity this year, to balance “the right mix
of business,” according to Davidson.
This is further reflected in an increase to
procuration fees on the commercial side, from 1%
to 1.5%, to align and equalise with the residential
offering and create “a level playing field.”
The recent changes represent part of the
“strategic plan” for the bank in 2026 – one that,
ideally, sustainably adapts to both the wider
market and Redwood’s own ongoing evolution.
Davidson adds: “Anybody in both the
commercial and the residential space knows that
commercial lending commands slightly higher
rates. So, from a profitability perspective, as
interest rates remain unpredictable, that's an
important consideration for any bank. A bank is
there to make money as well as serve customers.”
This is not about arbitrary targets for
commercial lending growth, but creating a strong
proposition that naturally fits with the market.
