Thursday, February 13, 2025
HomeMortgageOliemata O’Donoghue MBE, HSBC UK

Oliemata O’Donoghue MBE, HSBC UK



Each month, Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions sit down with a key intermediary industry figure to discuss strategy, the opportunity for brokers and the mortgage marketplace.

This month, we are talking to Oliemata O’Donoghue MBE, director of mortgage lending at HSBC UK.

 

How did you get into the mortgage industry?

My career has included roles that touch on mortgages in different ways and to different degrees. I’ve spent more than 25 years working in financial services, including 17 years at Barclays leading teams across distribution channels, with my last role being national performance director for mortgages.

I joined the fantastic team at HSBC in 2017, leading the frontline channels, including the branch network through a time of significant investment and change. I moved into my current role as managing director of mortgages last year. I have a big passion for the housing sector and being able to help people accomplish their dreams in owning their home. I am sure many of my peers in the industry will agree this is the most rewarding experience.

I have spent a chunk of my career in customer-facing roles, which gives you a real appreciation of what truly matters and the key role we play in driving societal impacts. I take real joy in shaping and executing customer-led strategies and finding solutions to complex problems, including digitisation and future fit strategies in a dynamic environment, providing thought leadership, and driving across industry collaboration to anticipate and find solutions for future challenges.


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You took on this role last year; what have you learned in this time?

Starting a new role is always a bit of a whirlwind and I’ve experienced that over the past few months as I have embedded myself into my new role, leading a team of 250 people with responsibility for the end-to-end mortgage journey and strategy. I love to fully understand the business I work in and have spent the time to understand what goes on from the grassroots upwards. I have taken the time to visit colleagues across our multiple sites to get to know about their working lives and the challenges they face. By speaking with colleagues, who are essentially the crux of the mortgage business, I have had the chance to understand the challenges and discuss opportunities to make improvements to be the best.

I have learnt from the overall industry by speaking with our brokers and spending time with external organisations and third-party suppliers to discuss and further understand the current and future housing market and how HSBC UK, along with our strong network of suppliers, can best meet the customer’s needs.

I have met with several providers over recent months who have shared their visions for the future of mortgages and how the evolution of AI and digital innovation will alter how customers will apply for mortgages and how the industry can streamline and enhance this journey. It’s certainly going to be an exciting future.

 

You have worked across various sectors in the banking industry, but what is the most important skill you feel you’ve brought to each role?

I am a values-driven leader with a strong passion for delivering customer and colleague-focused outcomes. I have a proven track record in leading successful teams and building great teams around me who can provide the support, knowledge, and experience to draw upon. The power of the skills the team has, and that I have harnessed over the years, has seen us navigate change and achieve great outcomes.

The variety of roles I have undertaken over the last 25 years have equipped me with strong technical and soft skills required to navigate change and drive innovation. Customer experience matters deeply to me and seeing things through the lens of simplification and driving efficiencies to enable transformative growth is a skill I leverage strongly.

I make no apologies for focusing efforts on all things diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in the workplace and society and strongly believe that you must be the change you want. We all have a part to play in driving inclusion. I value fairness and equality, and being an active sponsor and change-maker allows me to drive and influence impactful changes.

 

What do you think you stand for or represent in the mortgage sector?

Customer centricity and inclusion. Everything we do is for the customer. We should be doing everything in our power to ensure the experience of our customers through the mortgage journey is seamless. I enjoy collaboration and problem-solving, and being in an industry with so much expertise is something I don’t take for granted. The needs of our customers and society are constantly changing. We need diversity of thoughts and representation that reflects our communities.

I have a lot of energy, drive, and resilience to make things better and get it done. I believe these are key skills required now more than ever to execute improvement and change.

 

How do you hope to inspire others?

I take a lot of inspiration from people who dare to dream and are brave enough to challenge the status quo. My main driver is not to be a standout hero who inspires people, but rather part of something big that gives hope.

 

You have an MBE for your work with diversity in the financial sector; what changes do you think still need to happen?

We have made good progress, but we are on a journey. We have increased representation, delivered training and development opportunities, and created bespoke programmes for customers and colleagues. However, we can all do more. Experience has shown us collaborating and working together can make long-lasting change for the better.

 

HSBC recently signed up to OPDA. How important is technology and information sharing to the progress of housing transactions?

By joining the Open Property Data Association (OPDA), we become part of something much bigger. Sharing useful property data and having access to such data allows HSBC to make informed decisions.

Joining the OPDA is a significant step for us to help play a part in further improving the home buying process. This move aligns with our commitment to putting our customers first by enhancing their experience of buying a home through greater transparency, while giving customers greater control. Our membership will also allow us to contribute to the development of digital services – which is a key strategic priority for us as a ‘digital-first’ bank.

We are truly excited to collaborate with other industry leaders and hope this will help drive innovation and improve the digital landscape for all homebuyers.

 

HSBC’s half-year results showed its market share increased. What is your prediction for activity in the mortgage and housing markets for the rest of the year?

Prior to the election, housing featured heavily in the Labour Party’s manifesto, with a particular focus on helping first-time buyers (FTBs). Since the election, we have seen the government sustain this focus in its early policies and announcements, on increasing housing availability and facilitating greater access to homeownership, particularly for FTBs.

As a large lender, I see us playing a key part in realising these opportunities to drive growth and best-in-class customer experience.

I was pleased to see mortgage market projections for 2025 recently published by UK Finance, which seem more positive than in recent times.

Innovation is at the forefront of the industry, whether in the product space or customer journey improvements to shorten the time it takes to buy a property. We have big societal and environmental challenges to tackle in the housing space.

We continue to embed Consumer Duty requirements and principles to drive good customer outcomes, and while a lot has been done to drive fair value, we must focus on fully embracing these changes; the job is not done yet.

All in all, while there are some challenges, and there’s always a risk of something coming out of the woodwork to derail best-laid plans, it seems like a fantastic time for the market after a short lull in the last couple of years. Lower interest rates, higher disposable income and increasing housing supply will all be key factors in helping to boost the mortgage market.

 

Where do you see the biggest challenges in the market?

While we will observe challenges due to the macroeconomic environment, geopolitics, and climate change to name a few, we will also see many opportunities presented as we embrace AI and technological advancement.

Customers of today and the future expect us as an industry to evolve and find solutions to these challenges. The industry is full of talent, deep experience, and knowledge to navigate these expectations, and a great example is how the industry demonstrated a lot of resilience through the pandemic.

The customer expectations, the regulators, digital evolution, access to data and pace of change driven by high expectations across the board, including our own, will continue to challenge us all, while a lot of it will drive great changes and impact for our customers. We must continue to innovate and embed to drive good customer outcomes.

We will continue to navigate the friction points between human and digital services to ensure customers are very clear with advice versus non-advice and the impact of the choices they choose; our role is to help our customers buy a home and keep it in the future. The question of affordability, lending into retirement and others are always topical and should be, and we have a duty of care to ensure as responsible lenders that it is satisfied and understood. Saying no is not an answer many like to hear, but at times it is necessary to safeguard individuals.

 

What would you want brokers to know about HSBC UK?

HSBC UK has an ambition to offer best-in-class service to our intermediary partners. We made significant process and policy changes in 2024 to improve the customer journey, but there is more to come as we progress through 2025.

Historically, we were known as a direct-only mortgage provider, but we have just celebrated 10 years of HSBC UK for Intermediaries and making our mortgages accessible to brokers. We now have 200 distribution colleagues supporting brokers across the whole of the UK. We work with over 1,400 broker firms and over 23,000 individual supporting brokers. We have also picked up over 120 industry awards and counting; quite an achievement in the space of a decade, and it’s fair to say that we are going from strength to strength.

Our customers and stakeholders have high expectations of us. We must keep progressing on the journey of continuous improvement, innovation and setting higher standards to deliver good customer outcomes and high service standards; this is a work in progress.





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