Leeds Building Society has appointed Steven Croke as chief information officer, subject to regulatory approval. Croke brings more than 30 years of financial-services technology transformation experience, including his most recent role at Gartner.
The appointment is another indication that lenders see technology capability as central to service, resilience and distribution. For advisers, the practical question is how lender modernisation translates into application status visibility, data quality, turnaround times and handling of non-standard cases. Any expansion of AI within mortgage operations must be accompanied by governance, explainability, cyber-security controls and effective human escalation routes.