The chief executive of Start Mortgages, the country’s biggest subprime lender, has left the company less than six months after taking over the position.
Dermot Nutley became chief executive in June, succeeding David Ingram, who left with three other shareholders eight months after selling their shares to UK mortgage lender Kensington.
Speaking to The Irish Times, spokeswoman for Start, Esther Morley, a director of the company, said that Mr Nutley’s departure was a “personal choice for him”.
“In line with a number of other senior managers leaving earlier this year, he felt that it was the right time to go on to explore other opportunities,” she said.
Mr Ingram left with chief financial officer Niall Corish, head of risk Paul Murphy and head of treasury Deirdre Barry when Kensington purchased the 28 per cent of Start it did not own.
Mr Nutley was also a shareholder but sold his interest along with the other Irish stakeholders when they were bought out in 2010 by Kensington, a subsidiary of South African bank Investec. He was head of operations at the lender before taking over as chief executive.
Start had 62 staff earlier this year and has provided 11,000 mortgages of about €1 billion to more than 11,000 customers. The spokeswoman declined to disclose how many staff were now employed by Start or the current level of mortgages on its books.
The company was one of six subprime lenders in the Irish market but rivals GE Money, Nua, Fresh, Stepstone and Springboard, a subsidiary for Irish Life and Permanent, have closed to new business because of the financial crisis.
Start has been one of the more aggressive lenders to seek repossession orders in the courts against borrowers who have defaulted on their mortgages.