DATA AND ANALYTICS ARE
EMBEDDED IN OUR DNA
All Kensington mortgages are powered by VECTOR, our proprietary and hugely powerful analytical model that is embedded into all phases of the mortgage lifecycle.
VECTOR is supported by a unique dataset comprising over 400k mortgage accounts spanning all UK geographies, housing types, mortgage types and credit loan parameters for the last 20 years, and has driven the development of a number of in-house analytical tools and reporting capabilities that are key to the unique way in which we assess and manage mortgage credit risk.
FINANCIAL STRENGTH AND SCALE
In March 2023 Kensington was purchased by Barclays Bank UK PLC, and became part of the wider Barclays Group.
As part of the acquisition, Kensington continues day-to-day business operations as usual, supporting a broad range of borrowers that the High Street would typically not serve, but now with the added financial strength, deposit funding base and operational reach that comes from ownership by one of the UK’s largest financial services institutions.
A formidable team
The Kensington senior management team, with an average of more than 20 years’ experience in their field, bring extensive industry experience and knowledge to the business.
Their expertise encompasses building, acquiring, running and managing successful businesses having forged their careers at some of the premier players in the European and US mortgage space, including Nationwide, Deutsche Bank, RBS, GE and Barclays.
Guy Allen
Guy joined Kensington as Head of Data in 2019. Since joining, he has expanded his remit to
cover Digital and Technology, culminating in his current role as CIO responsible for all Digital,
Technology and Data services.
During his time with Kensington, Guy has driven the adoption of cloud native technologies and
championed the use of data within the organisation. Guy has over 20 years' experience in data and
technology across several industry sectors.
Prior to joining Kensington, Guy was Head of Management Information at British Gas. Previously, Guy
held data and analytics roles within British American Tobacco, Transport for London, Ricoh, Hewlett
Packard and multiple telecommunication companies.
Simon Betteridge
Prior to Barclays he has held a number of roles within finance, including at the Ministry of Defence, GE and Genworth, covering audit, controllership, FP&A and leading Business Partnering/FD teams.
Outside of Finance, Simon has several years’ experience leading commercial teams – including responsibility for the commercial performance, pricing and lending policy across Barclays’ Mortgage, Savings and Insurance businesses.
Allison Buckley
Ali has over 30 years’ experience of working in the Financial Services sector and joined Kensington as Head of Lending Operations in 2016 to lead on all aspects of mortgage lending operations, including underwriting. Over time, her role was expanded to include Customer Servicing, Arrears Management and Change Management.
Prior to joining Kensington, Ali was the Director of Lending at Pepper UK, where she worked on the new lender proposition, and facilitated the process of getting them to new mortgage lender status in the UK. Ali worked for GE Capital in various credit and operational roles for 14 years, where she was responsible for multiple teams across multiple locations. These included underwriting and processing of all new mortgage applications, Customer Services, Collections, Loss Mitigation, and Asset Management.
During 2019 and 2023 Ali studied for her MBA at Ashridge Hult College.
Richard Cull
Rachel Garnett
Rachel has more than 25 years’ experience in financial services, starting her career working in operations for a Building Society followed by roles within Mortgage Lenders and Insurance Companies.
Rachel first worked for Kensington in 2004 as a Compliance Officer, assisting with the implementation of MCOB. In 2008 she moved to work for First Title Insurance plc, again in the capacity of Compliance Officer, working on the implementation of Solvency II as well as covering risk, compliance monitoring and advisory. She re-joined Kensington in 2018, overseeing the advisory function as Head of Compliance, and with her team supported all areas of the business.
In 2024, Rachel stepped up to take on the Compliance Director’s role, overseeing both the Compliance Advisory and Monitoring Teams.
Amir Mehr
Amir has been working in the financial services industry across New York and London since 1992. Since 2015, he has worked for Kensington Mortgages as Credit and Analytics Director. Amir is responsible for credit risk and policy, asset management and portfolio strategy. He and his team are also responsible for developing and maintaining the various analytics tools used for funding, operations and portfolio acquisitions for the Group.
Prior to that, Amir's experience was primarily in fixed income capital markets with investment banks in New York and London where he worked as a managing director responsible for structuring of ABS/MBS. Amir received a BA in Accounting in 1992 from North Carolina State University. He also received his MBA from New York University Stern School of Business in 1999.
Kieran Mulligan
Kieran has 23 years of risk experience, with the last 17 being with Barclays Bank UK, becoming their CRO for Secured Lending in June 2022. His remit extended to Kensington Mortgages from June 2023, where he is responsible for risk management for the whole business.
His previous roles have included Head of Risk Oversight for Barclays Europe, where he coordinated retail credit risk management across the European portfolios, the deployment of best practices and compliance with internal policies. He has also led the Consumer Lending credit risk team for Barclays UK, with primary responsibility for the development and maintenance of the credit originations strategy for the unsecured personal loan product, a role he held for 7 years.
Kieran started his career with Halifax, subsequently HBOS, where he held a number of roles in the credit risk team.
Richard Nightingale
Richard joined Kensington as HR Director in 2014 and is responsible for recruitment, development, reward, engagement and organisation design and culture.
Prior to joining Kensington, Richard was the UK HR Director for Sun Life Financial of Canada. Previously, Richard held HR Director roles with Investec Bank, Marlborough Stirling and WSP.
Julie Paul
Julie joined Kensington in 2021 with responsibility for the Project Management team. Her remit was extended to include responsibility for the business analysis team before she assumed leadership of the Business Change function in 2023 to drive change and transformation across the business.
Julie has 20 years’ experience in establishing and leading change in financial services, recruitment and consultancy, and logistics and distribution. Before moving into change management in 2004, Julie had extensive experience in retail banking and lending having managed lending operations teams and functions at GMAC for eight years. Julie also worked at specialist lender Future Mortgages and spent eight years at the Halifax.
Emma Walker
Emma joined Kensington in 2018 and prior to her appointment as Operations Director held roles including Head of Customer Services and Experience and Head of Lending where she focused on enhancing customer experience, introduced policy and system enhancements, and improved offer and completion capacity.
Emma has over 20 years’ experience in financial services, including having worked at a brokerage for seven years where she specialised in 2 nd charge lending. Emma worked at GE Capital for eight years in various roles including leading a specialist lending underwriting and processing operation for 1st charge mortgages. She also led the outsourcing project as part of their business wind down to closure which the migration and remediation of the closed book, as well as training and operational oversight of the remote teams.
