Murray spent 48 years in retail banking across a variety of roles, and brings that accumulated mortgage finance knowledge to the Staircase finance team.

A career on the lending side gives a good understanding of how banks think. What they look for in an application, where things tend to slow down, and what separates a straightforward approval from a drawn out one. Murray uses that to anticipate problems before they surface.

As Finance Co-ordinator, his job is to keep the process moving. Documentation, timelines, follow-ups and the small pieces that hold an application up if nobody chases them. The finance stage is usually the part clients find most stressful, mostly because of the waiting, so Murray takes as much of it off them as he can and explains what is happening at each stage.