News in brief - 15 October 2025

Hampshire Trust Bank (HTB) has promoted Jack Slade to the role of business development manager (BDM) for the North East and Scotland. The bank said Slade’s promotion reflects his strong performance since joining the business and the relationships he has developed with brokers in the region. He joined HTB earlier this year as a business development executive, where he supported brokers across the North East with complex and non-standard cases. The move comes as HTB looks to continue its investment into its specialist mortgages and bridging finance divisions, following the appointment of Danny Kiely as head of sales and its recent expansion into Scotland.

Roma Finance has made two senior appointments as it looks to double its loan book by 2026. Richard Wilfan has joined the Manchester-based firm as a senior BDM for the North, bringing 17 years of experience in the specialist finance sector. He spent eight years at Together as team leader and underwriter, before moving to Goldentree as a BDM for nine years. Joshua O’Leary joins as senior relationship manager for the South, bringing five years of experience in real estate finance. He gained this experience at Mackenzie Byrne as director of development and structured finance. During this time, he focused on ground-up residential projects and structured deals involving senior lenders and third-party equity.

United Trust Bank (UTB) has announced rate reductions of up to 190 bps across its BTL mortgage products for single let, HMO, MUB and holiday let applications. On its standard range, rates start from 3.89% and 5.19% at two- and five-year fixes respectively. On its specialist two- and five-year fixes start form 4.24% and 5.49% respectively, while its non-standard range starts from 4.69% on a two-year fix and 6.14% as a five-year fix. The changes come after UTB made a number of enhancements to its BTL mortgage proposition, designed to give brokers more choice when support professional, larger landlord clients.



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