Hampshire Trust Bank appoints Higgins as development finance lending manager

He has worked at the firm for around five years, initially joining as relationship manager in 2019 and then becoming relationship manager team leader in 2021.

Prior to that, he worked at Bank of Cyprus for around a year as relationship officer, and before that was an associate relationship manager at National Australia Bank for around a year.

Before that, Higgins worked at Allied Irish Bank for around 14 years in various senior roles.

HTB growing its team

HTB has been growing its development finance team, appointing Harry Bhogal as lending manager for its development finance division earlier this week.

The company also hired Herbie Bone as senior portfolio manager in its development finance division and recruited Rob Syrett and Jason Wilmot as lending directors.

Neil Leitch, lending director, development finance at HTB, added: “Russell has been a stalwart of HTB’s development finance team for almost five years now. He has built excellent relationships in the East of the Pennines market and especially with HTB’s existing development finance clients.

“He thoroughly deserved his promotion and I can’t wait to see him continuing to provide the sort of exceptional customer service that both Russell and the Bank have come to be known for.”

Higgins added: “I am excited about the opportunity to step up into the lending manager position at HTB and continue my growth within the bank and the development finance industry as a whole.

“It is an exciting time at HTB as we continue to grow our development finance proposition. We have an amazing offering and I am eager to get on the road. I am looking forward to developing contacts with new and existing borrowers, brokers and professionals.”

He continued: “With its market-leading offering, HTB has a major role to play in contributing to the growth of the SME housing sector in the UK which is significantly under-supplied.”