Ultimate Finance appoints regional director; Hope Capital expands underwriting team

He joins the firm from Bibby Financial Services, where he worked for around eight years mostly as a business development manager (BDM). Prior to that he worked at Outsauce as a BDM for just under a year.

Nick Haggitt, Ultimate Finance’s sales director for the South and Midlands, said: “Tom is a great addition to the sales team and his expertise together with his experience with the local network offers us a real foothold into the region and the opportunity to provide even more working capital solutions to help businesses meet their ambitions.”

According to its most recent half-year results it reported its highest ever loan book of more than £270m, and registered £80m of new lending. It reported significant growth in bridging finance, asset finance and invoice finance.

Hope Capital expands team with dual underwriting hires

Hope Capital has hired Helen Hargreaves and Andrew Bate to its underwriting team as a trainee underwriter and loan administrator.

Hargreaves was previously a customer mortgagee expert at Barclays for nearly four years and Bate previously worked at Serco as a test and trace administrator. Before that, Bate was at Investec working as an investment adviser.

Hope Capital’s chief executive Jonathan Sealey said: “Underwriting is incredibly specialised in bridging lending, particularly when every case is looked at on its own merits and the numbers involved in terms of loan amounts range from the tens of thousands to the millions.

“I have no doubt Helen and Andy will be great additions to the underwriting team and I really look forward to watching them grow and develop their careers.”

The bridging lender has been growing its team over the past few months, hiring Roz Cawood as its sales director in June as well as business development managers David Burford and Debbie Range in July.

It more than doubled its loan book in the second quarter, with significant growth reported in its refurbishment, commercial and land deals.

The lender has also made a number of changes to its product offering, bring out its lowest ever bridging loan rate at 0.39 per cent and launched a fast-track bridging product.