A middleman who finds a credit facility or mortgage for you and takes a commission, usually from the lender, for bringing business to its doors. Sometimes called an intermediary. As there are now a multitude of different lenders offering many differing types of products the popularity of brokers has increased as it makes it easier for individuals to shop around for credit. Typically the roll of a broker will not only be to find a product for an individual but also to package their application for submission to the lender such as doing a Mortgage factfind, running credit check and ensuring income and equity criteria are matched, documentation such as ID and wage slips, obtaining a lender agreement in principle and ensuring the individual is correctly advised.
All brokers are regulated in the same way as lenders are, for example a mortgage broker will be regulated by the FSA as a mortgage lender would be. As such they are subject to the same rules and potentially can be censured in the same way as a lender if they are deemed to have acted outside of regulatory boundaries.
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