Stonebridge, the national mortgage and insurance network, and The Mortgage Shop (TMS), the Belfast-based mortgage advice firm, have today announced a renewed partnership with a long-term deal.
The broker is the market leader in Northern Ireland, trading since 1992 and now with 50 advisers in 23 Northern Ireland locations.
The new agreement sees TMS remain part of the Stonebridge network as an appointed representative (AR) firm and extends a partnership that had already celebrated its 10-year anniversary. TMS’s Managing Director, is also a board member of Stonebridge’s technology company, “Revolution”.
Stonebridge one of the fastest-growing, independent mortgage and protection networks in the country with over 1,300 advisers, attributes extending the TMS partnership to a mature and stable network proposition, which provides real development and support to their member firms.
TMS, which completes on £750m of mortgage lending annually, joined the network in June 2015 and has become one of the largest firms of its kind, operating its highly effective, high-street model.
It is committed to building on its status as one of the biggest advisory businesses and brands in the UK, and Stonebridge is committing to support the ambitious firm with a stream of financial and non-financial support.
Siobhan McAleer, Managing Director of The Mortgage Shop, said: “It was an easy decision to renew our partnership with Stonebridge. In our market, strong relationships count for a great deal, and the one we have built with Stonebridge has undoubtedly helped us in many ways, and we envisage will help us on the next stage of our growth journey.
“The history we have with the Stonebridge team would be hard to replicate, given the support they provide to the business, and the trust we have in their ability to do right by us and to ensure we have access to everything we need.”
Rob Clifford, Chief Executive of Stonebridge, commented: “We are delighted to announce the continuation of our relationship with TMS and to our mind, this shows the strength of our proposition and our ability to work in partnership with our AR member firms to help them thrive.
“TMS has grown successfully, along with Stonebridge, from those very early days into one of the top advisory firms in the UK and to become our largest AR firm. What makes this partnership special is the ambitions of both businesses to continue their sector- leading positions.
“Stonebridge will be with Siobhan, Philip, Julia and the team every step of the way to help them continue to prosper. It has been an excellent partnership for many years and we’re looking forward to the next 10 years.”
