Former Together head of intermediaries Robert Oliver joins Castle Trust, to fill the newly-created sales director’s post at the specialist lender.

The firm said Oliver has more than 20 years’ experience in intermediary lending, and previously held roles at Northern Rock, Virgin Money and Capital Home Loans.

Castle Trust Bank specialises in savings, mortgages and retail finance.

Castle Trust Bank managing director of mortgages Barry Searle says: “I’m really pleased to welcome Robert as our new sales director. He has extensive experience in intermediary lending, and is well known in the industry.

“He has an important role to play in making our specialist buy to let and bridge to let loans, and development finance proposition available to even more intermediaries, through our growing distribution network.”

Oliver says he is “excited” to work with a new team and products and is keen to take “them out into the market”.

Last June, the bank was granted full authorisation as a bank by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority.

Castle Trust said customers had voted to convert their existing investments into bank deposits by an “overwhelming majority.”

It added at the time, that converting its existing 30,000 investment accounts into bank deposits will be its priority.