United Trust Bank has increased its maximum loan to income (LTI) ratio to 6x for all applications up to £1m and under 85%.

The bank has also made rate reductions of up to 20bps across its residential mortgage range with immediate effect.

Examples of the new rates in the lender’s Prime Plus plans include a BoE lifetime tracker from +2.19%, a two-year fix from 5.54% and a five-year fix from 5.79%.

Within the Prime range of products, rates are now at 5.99% for a two-year fix and 6.44% for a five year fix, with the BoE lifetime tracker from +2.34%.

For Near-Prime plans, rates start at 6.89% for a two-year fix and 6.84% for a five-year fix. A BoE lifetime tracker in this range is from base rate plus 3.34%.

United Trust Bank director of mortgages Buster Tolfree says: “This combination of even lower, more competitive rates and the higher maximum LTI allows us to do more to support brokers and their customers. There isn’t a lot of good financial news around at the moment, and so this move will be welcomed by brokers trying to place specialist cases at the upper end of LTIs and affordability and can be applied to larger loans too.”