New CML chairman to fight for 'the right regulation'

Colin Walsh, managing director of Lloyds Banking Group Mortgages, has become chairman of the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

He succeeds Matthew Wyles of Nationwide Building Society, who has held the post for two years.

A graduate of Cornell University in New York, Walsh joined Lloyds Banking Group in 2006 where he has held a variety of executive roles.

Before that, he spent nearly ten years in senior roles at the largest US mortgage lender, Wells Fargo & Co, preceded by roles at American Express and GE Capital.

Walsh said: “This year the CML will do its utmost to help regulators and the Government to embed the right regulation to achieve the sustainable market they seek for the future.

“UK mortgage lenders have been helping people to buy their own homes for more than 150 years: there is no question that we are ‘socially useful’.

“The mortgage market really affects people’s lives, probably more than any other area of retail financial services, and I am determined to help ensure that as an industry we deliver to the best of our ability, whatever the underlying economic conditions.

“I commend my predecessor Matthew Wyles, who steered the CML well through the past couple of difficult years for lenders.

“One of my key objectives as CML chairman will be to try to harness the variety of expertise that exists among my colleagues from all kinds of mortgage lenders – banks, building societies, and specialists, large and small.”

Martijn van der Heijden of HSBC continues as a CML deputy chairman for a third year, and is this year joined by Vim Maru of Santander.