Hampshire Trust Bank (HTB) has announced the appointment of Greg Barnard as head of broker support within its specialist mortgages division.

This is a newly created role and Barnard takes up the position having spent five years in the underwriting team at HTB, with two years as a senior underwriter.

In total, he has 15 years’ experience in underwriting and has won the British Specialist Lending Underwriter of the Year award in 2021.

Barnard will take on day-to-day management of the lending managers as well as being the primary point of escalation for brokers for new business queries or issues.

He will also be the sales team’s first point of contact when assessing new deals, having extensive knowledge of HTB’s criteria, and providing underwriters with more capacity to focus on supporting deals at offer and completion.

Barnard comments on his new role:”“My focus is to ensure we consistently deliver for our brokers, and to do that will mean further drilling down into the finer details of the business to ensure our service levels remain award-winning.

He adds: “Managing our lending managers, supporting the sales team with assessing new deals and having the ability to be the primary point of escalation, means a truly connected overview of the brokers’ journey through each and every deal, and will bring a positive impact to the relationships we value”.