United Trust Bank (UTB) has appointed Sundeep Patel to the key role of Director of Bridging, with a mandate to significantly grow the Bank’s short term lending business. Sundeep, who is currently on ‘gardening leave’ will take up his new role in November 2022.
Sundeep is a highly experienced and well-known figure who has worked in the financial services industry for over 20 years. Most recently he was Director of Sales and member of the Commercial Executive Committee at specialist lender Together and was in charge of their Intermediary Channel. He successfully led Together’s re-entry to the market, having suspended lending during the pandemic, and is widely credited with playing a pivotal role in developing the lenders’ new strategy, building one of the sector’s most successful sales teams and establishing a strong ethos and culture with high levels of team engagement and staff wellbeing. Before joining Together in 2018 he was National Sales Manager at Precise Mortgages.
United Trust Bank’s Bridging division is recognised as the leading provider of regulated bridging finance. It has significantly increased its new business volumes in the last 12 months following the introduction of innovative new services such as FastTrack and the implementation of technology to empower brokers and accelerate bridging applications. Earlier this year the Bank refreshed its non-regulated bridging proposition with enhanced criteria and created a team of underwriters and case managers specifically tasked with accelerating non-regulated bridging proposals. The move was widely welcomed by brokers leading to a significant uplift in new business enquiries.
Sundeep Patel, United Trust Bank’s new Director of Bridging, commented: “United Trust Bank have established a great reputation as a competitive and reliable bridging lender with a highly skilled and knowledgeable team. The Bank has delivered exceptional performance despite the challenges of the pandemic and economic uncertainty, and I am looking forward to supporting their strategic ambitions and being part of their strong, values driven culture”.
Mark Stokes – Chief Commercial Officer, United Trust Bank, commented: “Sundeep has a huge amount of experience in the intermediary channel but more importantly he possesses the skills, drive and enthusiasm to build on our recent success and deliver the substantial growth we’re looking to achieve over the next few years. I am looking forward to welcoming him to the Bank and I know he is keen to meet his new team and get on with the job of making UTB the foremost provider of short-term finance.
“I would also like to thank Owen Bentley and Nikki Brett for maintaining Bridging’s excellent performance while we carried out our search for a new Director of Bridging. They will continue to run the division until Sundeep joins us in November and the three of them will create a formidable team, delivering yet more improvements to products and service and bringing even greater success to UTB’s Bridging business.”