United Trust Bank has promoted Gene Clohessy to director of buy-to-let and bridging, giving her responsibility for sales and underwriting across both divisions.
Clohessy (pictured) joined the bank in July 2025 as director of bridging underwriting and has 20 years of banking and real estate finance experience, including senior roles at LendInvest and Shawbrook Bank.
Since joining the lender, she has helped to develop its bridging credit strategy, strengthen links between brokers and underwriters and support changes to its proposition.
The expanded role brings sales and underwriting under one director as the bank seeks to improve the speed and consistency of its service to brokers.
The appointment comes during a period of investment in United Trust Bank’s buy-to-let and bridging businesses.
The lender launched a bridging portal in July to automate administrative parts of the application process and allow brokers to submit and progress cases around the clock.
The portal incorporates integrated credit searches, electronic document uploads and digital workflows, removing the need for wet signatures. United Trust Bank said it had recently progressed a bridging application from submission to offer in less than 24 hours through the system.
Further changes to its bridging proposition are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
The bank is also recruiting a head of buy-to-let and bridging underwriting and a sales director dedicated to the two markets. The sales director will support the existing team led by Bradley Illman, head of sales.
Buster Tolfree, managing director of mortgages, buy-to-let and bridging at United Trust Bank, said: “Gene is an experienced specialist finance professional and excellent leader, and I’m delighted that we’ve been able to fill this important role by promoting from within. She has extensive knowledge and experience across the bridging and buy-to-let markets, understands what brokers need from a specialist lender and shares our determination to combine great technology with fast decisions and genuinely personal service.
“Although Gene has been with UTB for little more than a year, the impact she has made in that time has been tremendous. I’d also like to thank Andrew Ferguson who helped us navigate the merging of the mortgages, buy-to-let and bridging divisions and has now left the business following this restructure. We wish him well for the future.
“There’s a lot happening across buy-to-let and bridging at UTB. The new Bridging Portal is already having a real impact, we’ve got further significant proposition enhancements coming over the next few weeks and we’re investing in roles across the team to support our growth ambitions.
“Gene is the perfect person to lead the next stage of our journey.”
Clohessy said: “It’s a really exciting time to be taking on this role. We’ve recently launched the new bridging portal, made significant changes to our buy-to-let criteria and processes and there’s an absolute stack of further improvements just around the corner.
“Aligning sales and underwriting more closely puts us in a strong position to deliver an even better experience for brokers. By using technology to reduce manual tasks and accelerate routine processes, we can free up our teams to focus on adding real value through meaningful broker conversations, deeper case understanding, and informed credit decisions.
“I’m incredibly excited about the opportunities ahead and what we can accomplish together.”
