UTB has always worked hard to provide a quick and efficient service, and the bridging team has won several awards over the years for doing just that. However, not being a bank to rest on its laurels, the team has taken a close look at how it dealt with new enquiries and decided it could do better. Enter, the internal sales team.

Bradley Illman and Kira Stein, two bridging specialists with nearly 20 years of industry experience between them, formed the original team with Katy Nolan moving across internally from the mortgage department to cope with increasing volumes. Their aim? To ensure that brokers receive a slick and professional service every time they call with a new business enquiry.

Bradley explained how the team was making such a difference to UTB’s bridging enquiry turnaround times and the service brokers received: “We’ve established the team as a dedicated first point of contact for brokers wishing to discuss a new case.

“The feedback we’ve had from our broker partners has been extremely positive.

“Even if they have a good relationship with a BDM, it’s usually quicker and easier to pick up the phone to Kira, Katy or myself.

“We can talk through the proposal, discuss the proposed structure, the security and exit options available and we’ll know pretty much straight away if it’s a deal for us.

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“We’ll generally issue DIPs within a matter of hours of offering terms and, from there, the proposal will be assigned to a case manager to see it through to completion.

“By then, we’re already discussing the next enquiry.”

Kira was part of the original UTB team that first entered the bridging sector in 2010.

She enjoys having the freedom to consider proposals and structure solutions without having to tick boxes: “We’re a very flexible lender and we approach enquiries from a position of wanting to do the deal rather than finding reasons not to.

“We know the marketplace and we offer an extremely competitive set of products.

“We can put together a very compelling offer for the broker and their client and we can do all of this on the phone, during that first call.”

Bradley, Kira and Katy’s experience in dealing with both straightforward and more unusual cases – for example, those involving trusts, offshore entities, corporations and charities – enables them to discuss and approve a wide variety of regulated and unregulated proposals.

The team issues over 100 DIPs a month.

We know that other lenders have started to copy our model, so we must be doing something right.

Pictured above from left to right: Katy Nolan, Kira Stein and Bradley Illman