Hampshire Trust Bank (HTB) has announced the appointment of Rob Syrett and Jason Wilmot as lending directors within its development finance division.

Syrett (pictured, right) joins HTB following six years at United Trust Bank (UTB), where he was most recently senior manager within the property development team. Prior to working at UTB, he worked as a restructuring manager at Dunbar Assets/Zurich Insurance and spent 10 years at Singer and Friedlander Limited.

He has over 10 years’ experience in providing SME house builders and developers with development finance, land purchase bridges and developer exit loans for customers across Greater London, South East, South West, East Midlands and East Anglia, with deals ranging from £1m to £30m.

Wilmot (pictured, left) joins the bank from Paragon Development Finance, where he was a relationship director for two years, a title he also held at Alternative Bridging Corporation from 2019 to 2020. At Paragon he specialised in providing residential development finance in the £1m to £25m debt range for a portfolio of clients operating across England and Wales.

Prior to that, he spent 16 years at RBS/Natwest Group where he managed a portfolio of clients specialising in property development and investment across London and the South East (residential and commercial sectors) in the £500k to £20m debt range.

Both report into Neil Leitch, commercial director – development finance, who said: “At HTB, we have an unquenchable thirst for quality people – you can never have enough. Both Jason and Rob have considerable and invaluable experience across property-related specialist lending. Their excellence is only matched by our desire to become the preeminent lending partner for SME developers throughout the UK.”

Syrett added: “This represented a great opportunity to join a forward-thinking lender who is making real waves in the development finance space. As a business, it is heading in a new direction, with an improved product range, backed up by competitive rates. This combination makes HTB an extremely attractive proposition and I’m delighted to be part of a growing team which is already packed with vast amounts of experience.”

Wilmot said: “It really feels like an opportune time to be joining HTB. I was attracted to the bank by its strong reputation in the market and its medium to long-term growth aspirations. Along with the competitive product range, the recent appointments at all levels within the team and the new operating structure further enhancing the HTB proposition, it puts the bank in a great position to become a leading development finance lender in the market. I look forward to working with and supporting both new and existing clients going forward.”