Freedom Finance has been given the green light from the Financial Conduct Authority on its consumer credit products and services, including secured, unsecured and buy-to-let loans under the rules of the Mortgage Credit Directive (MCD).
Second charge mortgage brokers were previously authorised by the Office of Fair Trading and needed a Consumer Credit Licence to arrange loans.
When the European directive was ushered in, to take effect from 21 March 2016, brokers advising on second charges were required to upgrade to full mortgage permissions to match their first charge counterparts or cease offering the service.
The EU does not differentiate between mortgages and second charges, more commonly known as secured loans, which means that all brokers will be required to be CeMAP qualified by 2017.
Rivals Enterprise Finance and Y3S have both been awarded full mortgage permissions ahead of the MCD deadline.
