Get in touch and we will agree how referrals work for your business before anything goes live. Call Conor Hull on 07581 364281. In practice a referral is a conversation with the customer’s details, what they are buying and what they are looking to achieve — passed on with the customer’s knowledge and agreement.
We would rather have that conversation first than after the event, because what you can do depends on who your customers are. Where the customer is a limited company buying for business use, the agreement is outside the consumer credit regime and an introduction is straightforward. Where the customer is an individual, a sole trader or a partnership, whether the introduction is a regulated activity depends on the agreement and on how much you do beyond naming the broker.
Where you want to introduce regulated business and be paid for it, the usual route is an Introducer Appointed Representative appointment: appointed by an FCA-authorised principal, operating under the principal’s authorisation rather than your own, with the principal taking regulatory responsibility. In our case the principal is Rural Finance Limited, the firm we are ourselves an Appointed Representative of. We can introduce you into that conversation and support an application, but the appointment and the oversight sit with the principal. What you would be paid is agreed with you directly.
Two points hold whatever we agree. The customer must know their details are being passed on and must have agreed to it. And nothing said at the point of introduction should promise approval, a rate or a timescale — the decision is the lender’s. This is general information, not legal or compliance advice, and your position depends on your customer mix.