Annual Mortgage Conference 2026

Julian is a seasoned financial services executive focused on fintech and proptech innovation. As the COO and board member of Landbay Partners, the UK’s leading Prime Buy-to-Let marketplace mortgage lender, he has played a pivotal role in scaling the business, overseeing its growth to more than £4 billion in completed mortgages. Under his leadership, Landbay has earned multiple industry accolades, including four consecutive Best BTL Lender awards and recognition among Europe’s fastest-growing companies in the Financial Times FT1000 and The Times UK Fastest 100 Growing Technology Companies. 

Julian is also a non-executive director and adviser across the fintech and proptech sectors, with a passion for innovation in financial services. He brings over 30 years of experience, including senior roles at JPMorgan and Macquarie across New York, London, Tokyo, and Sydney. Outside of work, he’s an avid cyclist, skier, and classic car enthusiast.

Frances Haque is the Chief Economist for Santander UK responsible for the economic analysis and macroeconomic forecasts used by the retail bank. Her team are responsible for developing: the analysis of economic risk scenarios to support the Prudential Regulatory Authority stress test and IFRS 9 processes; analysis for planning and strategic purposes; supporting the external customer work of the bank including speaking at a variety of events; and writing for external publications. She has also been appointed to the FCA’s CBA Panel. 

Prior to joining she worked for a variety of different institutions as a senior economist including, EY, BT, BBC, Ofcom and OFT. 

She also specialises in Competition and Regulatory economics and has appeared on BBC, Sky, ITV, CNBC and Bloomberg News, and Radio programmes including the Today, LBC and Times Radio programmes, providing commentary on published economic data and analysis.

Lewis Harris is Head of Strategic Solutions at Finova, one of the UK’s leading providers of cloud-based mortgage, savings and lending software. He plays a key role in shaping Finova’s pre-sales strategy, working closely with lenders to translate market challenges and customer needs into scalable, technology-driven solutions. 

Lewis brings extensive experience across banking and fintech, having held senior roles at Salesforce, nCino and HSBC. 

With a deep understanding of the evolving mortgage landscape, Lewis is focused on helping lenders modernise their operations, improve efficiency and deliver better customer outcomes. He is particularly passionate about the role of technology in driving innovation across the lending lifecycle and enabling firms to adapt in a rapidly changing market.

In his role as Managing Director, Personal Finance and Prudential, Reporting and Taxation, Eric is responsible for all personal finance matters, including cards, complaints handling, conduct regulation, consumer credit, payments, savings and supporting vulnerable customers across retail and private banking portfolios. Eric is accountable to retail, private and mid-tier bank CEOs for the development and delivery of sector specific strategies, maintaining active senior-level engagement with politicians, regulators, consumer advocates and policy makers on a range of issues to support the economy, serve customers better and earn trust in the sector.

Eric is a chartered banker and a non-executive director at the Buckinghamshire Building Society (chair of risk), Registry Trust Limited and also holds non-executive roles on the government's Credit Union Expansion Project and Regional Growth Fund.

James has over 25 years’ experience in housing and financial services economics and analysis. Joining the Council of Mortgage Lenders in 2003, which merged into UK Finance in 2017, he has continually developed the mortgage industry’s rich data assets, creating a world-leading knowledge base for the sector. Leveraging these assets and his two decades of industry and data knowledge, James has overall responsibility for UK Finance’s mortgage sector analysis and authors many of its publications, including our flagship Household Finance Review.

Prior to settling in financial services James held a range of academic, public and private sector roles in economics, interspersed with sabbaticals to lose himself in various interesting corners of the world. He has now mostly grown up and is married with two mostly grown children and two mostly grown dogs, all of whom believe they are superior economists to him.