Staff Spotlight: Simon Cottrell, Head of Recoveries and Investor Relations

Meet Simon Cottrell, our Head of Recoveries and Investor Relations at Somo. With over 30 years of experience in debt recovery, Simon ensures swift and secure loan recoveries and provides excellent service to our valued investors. 

Simon Cottrell has a dual role at Somo, both managing the recovery team and as the most senior point of contact for its valued investors.

According to Somo’s Social Investors, an solid track record and prompt recovery of loans is the most important factor when choosing an investment platform. Thanks to the tenacious approach of the recovery team led by Simon, Somo’s track record is excellent.

Simon also spends time ensuring long-standing, new and potential investors get to grips with Somo’s lending platform quickly and easily taking them from sign up, suitability assessments to first Investment as quickly and safely as possible. Simon’s also on hand to answer Investor questions and provide updates. Once a loan is underwritten and agreed, it’s Simon who personally creates the loan on the platform for investors and circulates loan opportunities.

He says: “Our Investors really appreciate the human touch, having someone they can pick the phone up to at any time and the ideal mix of fintech and people-based service.”

Simon has over 30 years of debt recovery experience, mostly working in litigation and insolvency recoveries. His career has spanned commercial finance, commercial debt recovery, consumer finance, property finance and structured asset finance to name but a few, with long stints of employment at AT&T Capital and finance company De Lage Landen, a division of Rabobank Group based in the Netherlands.

He has been with Somo for six years and truly believes the firm’s ethos of ‘slow and steady wins the race’ has helped it achieve success.

“We’re extremely healthy from a financial standpoint and that is paramount for investors,” says Simon.

“For 10 years, we’ve performed consistently with tried and tested principles, products and methodology that have been refined along the way. We were recently rated exceptional by the independent audit company 4thWay for paying the highest overall rates of any UK-based property loan lender, going to great lengths to reduce risks when assessing borrowers, offering an exceptional calculated risk-reward balance and having a strong and realistic exit strategy for repaying a loan.

“Somo stands out among its competitors with its clear proposition. We are very transparent and make it clear how the loans are structured, what the risks are and what the returns are. We base our loans on the valuation of the security, normally residential or semi commercial property in the UK, and undertake thorough due diligence in advance of agreeing loans. We don’t loan on future value so there’s no big surprises. In addition, we maintain a loan to value limit of 70%.

Understandably, Simon is proud of his role at Somo and the part he’s played in ensuring the confidence and loyalty of investors. Around 80% of loans are currently funded by investors who’ve been with Somo for five years or more. And often, when new investors come on board and learn how to use Somo’s system, they will take funds from other platforms to invest with the firm.

“The future is bright for Somo and as our success speaks for itself and demand is high, providing investors with sufficient loans to meet demand will always be my priority,” concludes Simon.