JustUs hires Santander’s Mike Moroney as COO

JUSTUS has hired former Santander manager Mike Moroney (pictured) as chief operating officer, to help drive the company’s growth this year.

Moroney spent the last nine years supervising financial advisers throughout the North West of England for the high street lender, prior to which he worked at Prestbury Investment Management with JustUs chief executive Lee Birkett.

The Cheshire-based peer-to-peer lender, which provides consumer mortgages and loans, said that Moroney is well-known to the team and the mortgage community at large.

“Mike is one of the most competent mortgage professionals in the UK – with our growth plans about to get into full swing, a leader of Mike’s ability is a key appointment to kick start our exciting business plan,” said Birkett.

“I have been in talks with Mike for approaching two years and he was always my number one target. Mike’s remit will see him lead the recruitment drive and take responsibility for the day to day operations of the business.”

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“I’m delighted to be joining the JustUs team and relish the opportunity to support the ongoing growth of the business,” said Moroney.

“This is a huge and exciting opportunity to make a significant difference in the current market. The priority is to now build on the already strong team to deliver excellent customer service and implement the focused expansion of the business.”

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JustUs is solely open to consumer lenders and borrowers and Birkett has been vocal in his dislike of institutional money flooding into the P2P sector.

In a message to his LinkedIn contacts in April, he said that institutional investment had “muddied the P2P waters considerably” and contributed to the slow pace of Innovative Finance ISA launches.

He said at the time that JustUs is “on track” to launch its own tax-free wrapper in the third quarter of 2017.