United Trust Bank (UTB) has appointed Astrid Michael as its new head of sales for its asset finance division.

The appointment follows the retirement of Keith Sangwin earlier this year.

Michael (pictured) has worked in the asset finance industry for 20 years. She has worked with funders including ING and most recently Hitachi Capital Business Finance where she was sales manager for farm and cross channel delivery.

UTB has developed its asset finance business this year making 11 new appointments. Michael’s key focus will be on driving high growth through the Bank’s ‘broker-only’ strategy and continuing to build on the momentum of 2021 where new business lending has more than doubled.

She said: “UTB has made a big impact this year, recruiting great people, developing its proposition and taking market share from competitors. I’m excited to be joining Nathan and the team and looking forward to reuniting with my old colleagues from ING, Peter Price and Louise McIntosh.

“Together our aim is to establish UTB as the number one specialist asset finance funder delivering the best broker service in the market. By this time next year, I want UTB’s to be the most called number on every broker’s phone.”

Nathan Mollett, head of asset finance at UTB, added: “We are having an exceptionally busy year, breaking records for completed business and deal sizes and working with more new brokers than ever before. But this is just the beginning.

“With Astrid on board, I believe we have one of the strongest senior teams in the market, joining Peter Price and Louise McIntosh managing the biggest asset finance credit and operation teams UTB has ever had, and Jon Mote exploring new product opportunities and leading our push for larger loans. The whole division is committed to driving our growth and the pursuit of service excellence. 2021 is going to be an outstanding year for UTB, but 2022 will put us into another league altogether.”