Information on authorisations data - retail lending sector - January 2024

For completeness on your request and for your information, please note that the Authorisations Division defines the “retail lending sector” as applicants assigned to the following "portfolios".

• Building societies
• Credit Unions
• Retail Mortgage Lenders
• Non-Bank Lenders
• Mortgage Third Party Administrators
• Mortgage Intermediaries
• Lifetime mortgage providers
• High cost lenders
• Mainstream Consumer Credit lenders
• Motor Finance lenders
• Retail finance Providers
• Debt purchasers
• Debt advice firms
• Credit Brokers
• Credit Reference Agencies
• Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lenders
• Claims Management Companies

For the last 12 months (from 28/12/2022), the percentages of a Variation of Permission ("VoP") applications determined as a rejection, withdrawal or refusal for all retail lending sectors are as follows:
• Rejection: 8%
• Withdrawal: 27%
• Refusal: 0%

b) For the last 12 months (from 28/12/2022), the percentages of New Authorisation applications determined as a rejection, withdrawal or refusal for all retail lending sectors are as follows:
• Rejection: 21%
• Withdrawal: 28%
• Refusal: 1%

a) For the last 12 months (from 28/12/2022) Authorisations has received two VoP applications to add the regulated activity of "Entering into a Regulated Mortgage Agreement as Lender" with a limitation of "Limited to second charge mortgages only".
b) For the last 12 months (from 28/12/2022) Authorisations has determined one VoP application to add the regulated activity of "Entering into a Regulated Mortgage Agreement (2nd charge only) as Lender." Additionally, one VoP application is still being assessed. A breakdown of the determinations of these applications are as follows:

• Withdrawn: 1
• Rejected: 0
• Refused: 0

Ten applications for Part 4a New Authorisations and VoP requests were *recommended refused* by a case handler and then approved by the EDM.

We can confirm that since November 2020, no Decision Notices in respect of Part 4A VoP refusals have been referred to the Upper Tribunal. Please note that we are unable to provide data for the full five-year period requested as data has only been recorded by the Authorisations Division since November 2020.