For mortgage lenders · panel onboarding + monitoring
Lender broker panel monitoring
A 200-broker panel turns over ~5-10% per year; that's 10-20 brokers whose authorisation, permissions, or principal relationship shifts in any given year. Most lenders' panel software still polls quarterly because the cost of more-frequent polling at retail rates was prohibitive — that's a 90-day window where a de-authorised broker keeps writing applications + the lender keeps booking risk. Stratum's bulk endpoint cuts the per-broker cost to £0.59 at the 1000-pack rate, which makes daily polling economic for any panel size.
What changes between annual reviews
FCA Register changes that materially affect panel risk: (1) authorisation status flips (Authorised → Withdrawn / Cancelled / In Default), (2) permissions removed (Mortgage mediation pulled), (3) AR/principal relationship dissolved, (4) Senior Managers / Certified Persons removed from the SM&CR Directory, (5) the firm's 'In Default' flag set following an FOS award. Each of these is a different signal: status = stop accepting applications immediately; permissions = continue but reroute mortgage applications elsewhere; AR change = re-onboard under the new principal.
How the daily-diff workflow lands
The bulk endpoint accepts up to 100 FRNs per call. A lender with a 200-broker panel runs two calls per day at 06:00 UTC + diffs the response against yesterday's snapshot. New de-authorisations land in the broker-relations team's inbox before they spend the morning processing applications from a now-de-authorised broker. The diff logic is straightforward — same shape every day, just compare. The webhook notification path lands in 2026-Q3.
Per-broker cost at panel scale
Volume bands: £0.99/check at 100-pack, £0.59/check at 1000-pack. A 200-broker panel polled daily = 200 × 365 = 73,000 calls/year. At the 1000-pack rate that's £43,000/year — for the same coverage SmartSearch's enterprise tier starts at £20-40k/year + you still don't get the daily granularity. Per-broker daily cost at 1000-pack: 365 × £0.0059 = £2.15/year. Right-sized for the actual workload.
Frequently asked
What's in the diff response?
You get the full firm record per call; diffing against yesterday catches any change. The response includes status, permissions[], keyIndividuals[], AR/principal mapping, and the FCA list-version timestamp. Persist last-known-snapshot per FRN; alert on any field change.
Do you support webhooks on permission changes?
Roadmap. Today: poll daily + diff. The webhook path lands in 2026-Q3 once we've validated the demand signal across enough lender panels to justify the infrastructure.
What about the broker's individual SM&CR status?
The /v1/fca/sm-cr/{frn}/directory endpoint returns the firm's Certified Persons. For the named broker on each application, cross-check against this list — that catches the "broker still at the firm but no longer Certified" failure mode.
How do you handle In Default flags?
The response surfaces `firm.in_default` as a boolean + the date the flag was set. In-Default firms are typically winding down + the broker's mortgage applications need to redirect; surface this prominently in the lender's broker-CRM.
Volume pricing breakdown?
Single check £1.95; 10-pack £1.49/check; 100-pack £0.99/check; 1000-pack £0.59/check. A 200-broker panel polled daily lands in the 1000-pack tier; talk to us about Pro for higher-volume + custom SLA.