United Trust Bank has promoted Gene Clohessy to director of buy-to-let and bridging, giving her responsibility for the sales and underwriting functions across both product areas.
Gene joined UTB in July 2025 as director of bridging underwriting and has 20 years’ banking and real estate finance experience, including senior roles at LendInvest and Shawbrook Bank.
Since joining UTB she has played a key role in developing the Bank’s bridging credit strategy, strengthening links between brokers and underwriting and supporting the evolution of its proposition.
The Bank launched its new bridging portal in July, digitising and automating many of the administrative elements of the application journey and enabling brokers to submit and progress cases 24/7. The portal incorporates integrated credit searches, electronic document uploads and digital workflows, removing the need for wet signatures and allowing underwriters to spend more time applying their experience and judgement to credit decisions and supporting brokers.
Further enhancements to UTB’s bridging proposition are due to be announced over the coming weeks.
In light of Gene’s promotion, UTB is also recruiting a head of underwriting as well as a new sales director dedicated to buy-to-let and bridging, who will support and develop the existing sales team led by head of sales, Bradley Illman.
The Bank has also announced that Andrew Ferguson, commercial director of its recently merged mortgages, buy-to-let and bridging divisions, has left the business following the restructure.
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."
Gene Clohessy commented: "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.”
