United Trust Bank (UTB) has expanded and revamped its underwriting team to deal with rising business volumes.
Specific teams will now manage applications from brokers, who will be assigned specific regional business development managers (BDMs), ensuring intermediaries deal with the same individuals and receive a more personalised service.
Gina Fry and Laura Eccles have been promoted to underwriting managers, and David Burke has joined the Bank from NatWest to perform the same role.
They will report to Toby Wilson, who has been promoted to head of underwriting – mortgages.
United Trust’s wider mortgage team has grown to 25 people in less than two years, with 13 having joined the team in 2017.
UTB provides asset finance, mortgages, bridging finance, development finance, professional loans and structured finance.
UTB’s commercial director – mortgages, Buster Tolfree, said: “Our mortgage business is growing quickly and with plans for further product development in the future we wanted to ensure that our underwriting and servicing could continue to accommodate increasing volumes without letting our high standards slip.
“Organising the underwriting and servicing functions to support the brokers looked after by specific BDMs made perfect sense to us. We are a people business and enjoy building and maintaining strong, rewarding relationships with our introducers.
“Having three smaller teams dedicated to specific brokers will enable us and the brokers to get to know each other better and to build a greater understanding of each other’s businesses.
“As we continue to extend our product range and the number of brokers we deal with, we can easily replicate this model as needs require, ensuring that UTB remains a top pick for brokers and their customers.”
Tony Salentino, director at Southampton-based Complete FS, commented: “From our point of view, that is music to our ears. One of the things we have noticed with the challenger banks is it is always all about relationships.
“You can have adult conversations about the creditworthiness of clients who don’t always fit exactly, but actually you can shape them into a case lenders are happy with.
“You can say ‘there is this one thing you are not going to like, but there are three things you are going to like. There are lots of reasons why you should be doing that deal.’
“It provides certainty of decisions, surety of decisions – everybody wins. The conversion rate will definitely go up.”
simon.allin@ft.com
