United Trust Bank has hired real estate Piragash Sivanesan as director – intermediaries, property finance to develop relationships with brokers and debt advisers.
Industry veteran Sivanesan will focus on deepening relationships with intermediaries serving small housebuilder, developer and property investor clients across England and Wales.
The specialist lender says he will work across its property development and structured property finance divisions, liaising with both teams to identify opportunities to boost awareness of their services among brokers and grow new originations.
It adds that Libby Vaughan, who joined the firm’s business development and marketing – property team last year as part of a data collection and management project, will work with Sivanesan to provide administrative and marketing support.
The bank says that although “the property industry is facing increasing economic uncertainty, UTB is committed to continuing to support customers with a proven track record of delivering successful developments and investment projects”.
It adds that its development loan book has continued to grow this year and the business has expanded the property development originations team to 28 directors and managers.
Sivanesan has worked in the property finance sector for over 20 years, and joins from Totum Finance, a real estate debt advisory firm he founded seven-and-a-half years ago.
Prior to that, the worked at NatWest for four-and-a-half years, leaving as a corporates and institutions director in March 2015. He has also worked at Lloyds and KPMG.
United Trust Bank head of property development Adam Bovingdon says: “Piragash brings a huge amount of experience from both sides of the real estate finance industry and the property development and structured property finance teams will benefit from his focus on developing our intermediary relationships.
“Our loan commitments now support the delivery of around 6000 new homes at any one time and we have the ambition and capability to increase that further. We are looking to continue that growth by increasing and deepening our relationships with brokers specialising in development and real estate investment finance.”
United Trust Bank’s Sivanesan adds: “With economic and political uncertainty the highest it has been for over a decade, UTB believes that by increasing and strengthening ties with experienced advisors there are opportunities to create relationships which will endure the ups and downs of the economic cycle.”