Bhakta took over from Jayne Almond in September, who is now non-executive chairman of the UK lender.
Butterfield Mortgages Ltd (BML) has promoted Alpa Bhakta to chief executive of the high net worth mortgage lender.
Bhakta (pictured) took over from Jayne Almond in September, who is now non-executive chairman of the UK lender.
Bhakta said: “The ambition is for Butterfield Mortgages Ltd to have a standing in the high net worth space and become a go-to for high net worth mortgages.
“We are looking to be successful and add value to the wider group.”
Bhakta was made managing director of BML in January 2017 after it stopped being a private bank.
Before that she was part of Butterfield Private Bank, as it was known, from October 2011 to December 2016 as head of property finance and then head of European lending.
Earlier in her career she was at BNP Paribas Fortis, where she was director of private property finance.
Butterfield Mortgages is a subsidiary of Butterfield Group, which provides private banking, asset management and personal trust services in Guernsey, and has other subsidiaries in Switzerland, Bermuda, The Bahamas and the Cayman Islands.
The UK firm employs 20 members of staff in Bank, London, and last week announced the hires of four members of staff from Harrods Bank.
Bhakta added: “Having the wider team to take care of the business development side means that I can take more of a senior governance role and make sure we are doing what we need from a recruitment perspective.
“Almond was in more of an interim position while we gained FCA approval and got to grips with the transition.”
Bhakta is joined on the board by Almond, as well as non-executive director Tim Brooke, who has a background at JP Morgan Chase, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Northern Rock, and executive director Richard Saunders, who is managing director of Butterfield Bank in Guernsey.
BML won’t be hiring a managing director to replace Bhakta.
