Mortgage lender · panel onboarding

Lender broker checks via the FCA Register

The problem

Brokers move on, change firms, lose permissions. A lender's panel-management workflow runs on annual reviews but reality moves faster: a broker's authorisation can change between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning. Manual register checks at panel renewal don't catch the in-year drift, and discovering it via a customer complaint is the worst possible time.

How Stratum fits

Drop the FCA Verification API into the broker-CRM you already use. Each application carries a real-time FCA check; flag any broker whose permissions lapse. The response includes the SM&CR Directory cross-link so you can verify the named individual signing the application is still a Certified Person at that firm. List-version timestamp on every response keeps the audit trail clean for regulator inspection.

One request

# Request
curl https://api.stratumapis.com/v1/fca/firms/305101 -H "x-stratum-key: $KEY"

# Response
{ "firmReferenceNumber": "305101", "name": "Example Brokerage Ltd", "status": "Authorised", "permissions": ["Mortgage mediation"], "smCrDirectoryRef": "..." }

Set $KEY from your dashboard.

Frequently asked

Can I batch-check my whole panel daily?

Yes. Use `POST /v1/fca/firms/bulk` with up to 100 FRNs per call; pricing scales with volume bands.

How do you handle de-authorised firms?

The response includes `status` (Authorised / Withdrawn / Cancelled / In Default) plus the date. Surfacing this on the broker dashboard is a 5-minute integration.

Does this cover SM&CR Certified Persons?

The SM&CR Directory is a separate endpoint we expose — `/v1/fca/sm-cr/{frn}/directory`. The use-case pattern is to cross-reference the named broker against the Certified list.