According to Blend, the direct authorisation will help consolidate its position as a market leader for syndicated development finance loans in the UK, and support the rapid expansion of its borrower base.
Development finance and bridging lender Blend Network has been approved by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for direct authorisation (DA).
The lender was launched in 2018 to serve mid-market property developers in the UK.
According to Blend, the direct authorisation will help consolidate its position as a market leader for syndicated development finance loans in the UK, and support the rapid expansion of its borrower base.
This follows the recent launch of a revised product price matrix, as well as several other milestones.
In 2020, Blend Network doubled its lending volume compared to the previous year, despite the global pandemic; it is now on track to more-than double its lending in 2021.
On 23 March 2021, the lender funded the first tranche of a £2.6m lending facility in just six minutes.
Blend Network offers loan sizes of between £150,000 and £5m, with a UK-wide appetite; it offers up to 75% LTGDV, up to 90% LTC and 100% build costs.
Roxana Mohammadian-Molina (pictured), chief strategy officer at Blend Network, said: “We worked extremely hard to achieve full FCA direct authorisation and this is an enormous success
for us, especially considering that only a handful of platforms have got approved over the past couple of years – a lot more used to get approved each year prior to 2019.
"Moreover, this enormous success comes at a time where Blend Network is in full growth mode and has been hitting multiple landmarks.
"This helps generate trust in what we are building at Blend Network.”
Yann Murciano, chief executive at Blend Network, said: “We are thrilled to have been granted full direct authorisation by the FCA.
"The approval process required the FCA to conduct an extremely exhaustive and thorough due diligence on Blend Network and it required Blend Network to disclose extensive information.
"We believe this authorisation will help us consolidate ourselves as one of the leading development finance lenders in the market and further enhance borrower trust in our business.”
