OSB Group's lending distribution director on brands, brokers and why service beats rate every time
When Adrian Moloney (pictured top) joined what was then One Savings Bank more than a decade ago, specialist lending was largely synonymous with buy-to-let and little else. The market was smaller, the competition thinner, and the conversation between lenders and brokers driven almost entirely by price and product availability. The world he now oversees as Group Lending Distribution Director at OSB Group looks considerably different.
Across three intermediary brands – Rely, Precise, and Interbay – OSB Group today serves a broker network of more than 19,000 registered firms and deploys what it describes as the largest specialist intermediary sales force in the UK. In 2026 alone, the group has launched an entirely new brand, rebuilt its technology platform, and started deploying artificial intelligence inside its contact centres.
Moloney spoke exclusively to Mortgage Introducer about a year of structural change, the future of the specialist market, and why he believes service will always matter more than rate.
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Eleven years, three brands
Moloney came to OSB Group via 14 years at Nationwide, where he helped expand the building society's intermediary offering – standing up a team of approximately 40 business development managers (BDMs) and widening its broker proposition from a small operation into a major distribution channel. Following OSB Group's acquisition of Charter Court Financial Services Group plc in 2019, it now operates a family of brands spanning residential, buy-to-let, commercial, and bridging lending. The group joined the FTSE 250 Index in 2015.
Specialist lending – mortgage finance for borrowers or properties that fall outside the standard criteria of high street lenders – has changed substantially over Moloney's 11 years at the group. "At the start there was a little less competition, so it was probably led a little bit in terms of price and can you do it," he said. "For brokers now there's a lot more of them involved in specialist mortgages because the market has naturally evolved to a bigger piece."
Where price and eligibility were once sufficient to win business, brokers now demand a service experience that mirrors what they receive in the prime market. "Why should someone that's getting a specialist mortgage, or a broker that deals with it, not have a prime experience like they do on the high street?" Moloney said. "Because if you adopt the same ethos of support, clarity, communication, then actually you can be a winner without having to have the cheapest rate out there."
Clear swim lanes
That philosophy has shaped how OSB Group restructured its brand architecture in 2026 – a process Moloney describes as creating "really clear swim lanes" for brokers navigating a complex product landscape.
Much of OSB Group's history was built through acquisition, and the brands that accumulated came with overlap. After the Charter Court deal brought Precise into the fold alongside Kent Reliance for Intermediaries, both operated in buy-to-let and residential with subtle but sometimes confusing distinctions. "There was probably more crossover and confusion," Moloney said.
The solution was to build each brand as a vertical rather than a horizontal. Rely – launched in 2026 as a new brand replacing Kent Reliance for Intermediaries – is now OSB Group's dedicated specialist buy-to-let lender. Precise has pivoted away from buy-to-let entirely and is building out as a residential brand. Interbay remains the home for commercial lending, alongside Precise's established bridging offering. Brokers can now register for all three brands through a single process.
Moloney does not disguise the emotional weight of retiring Kent Reliance for Intermediaries. "Retiring that was emotional," he said. "But bringing to life Rely was a real sense of achievement."
The view that specialist lending is no longer a secondary market has taken hold across the industry, and OSB Group's restructure is one of the more ambitious expressions of that shift.
Technology, AI and the pace of change
Moloney's expanded remit includes leading OSB Group's digital and AI strategy for intermediaries, and he is candid about how his thinking has shifted since taking on the role 10 months ago.
"When I started the role, I think we thought it was all about integration into the broker systems," he said. "But what it actually taught me was that it's all moving at a really fast pace from where I thought it was at the start of the year to where we are now in month 11."
Internally, AI tools have been deployed inside OSB Group's contact centres, enabling telephony staff to retrieve answers to broker queries faster. Externally, the focus has been on rebuilding the technology platforms underpinning both Rely and Precise, with brokers involved from an early stage. "We had brokers in on the journey really early to tell us how we can improve that and if it is fit for purpose," he said. “Even weeks into launch we're constantly engaging with people about where the next steps are."
The rebuilt platform now brings new products to market in four to five hours, down from four to five days on legacy systems. "There hasn't been one point of the year where we haven't had a complete product set on all of our brands," Moloney said. "Other lenders have had some of that challenge.
"I've never seen tech move at the pace that it's moving at the moment. It's an exciting time to be in it, but it's going to be constantly evolving." Across the UK mortgage market, AI is increasingly reshaping how applications are assessed and approved, with lenders accelerating adoption at pace.
Serving 1.5 million specialist borrowers
Research published this year found that more than 1.5 million UK homes – around 6% of the country's 28 million residential properties – fall outside mainstream mortgage criteria, locked out of standard finance because of factors including non-standard construction, short leases, or proximity to commercial premises.
Moloney believes the market is well placed to meet that demand. "Specialist lending is not seen as a secondary market anymore," he said. "It's a key part of all brokers' toolkits."
The buy-to-let remortgage pipeline is one immediate pressure point. With buy-to-let lending up 20.6% year-on-year in Q2, according to UK Finance, remortgaging rather than new purchases is driving the bulk of that growth. "Landlords want to use bridging finance because they do it quickly," Moloney said. "They take it out and then go onto a term loan. We're seeing people still want to refinance. They want to take capital out."
OSB Group has developed resources to support case placement decisions, including published guides to bridging and commercial lending. "I hate the word educate because it's not our job to teach people that are qualified what to do," Moloney said. "I prefer the word support."
BDMs are now dual-branded across residential and buy-to-let long-term lending, while a high-net-worth team has been merged with a specialist property team to support larger borrowers and more complex transactions. "When you get into those bigger transactions, it's about having access to decision makers," Moloney said. That direct access to underwriting expertise, he argues, is what separates a genuinely specialist lender from one that simply positions itself as one.
As the market moves into 2027 with another wave of fixed-rate maturities on the horizon, Moloney is clear about what OSB Group brings to that environment: “We’re an extremely well-funded bank that gives you size, scale, reliability, flexibility and a breadth of products to support that.”
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