Switching aggregators: what happens to your lender accreditations
The pitch for switching aggregators is about commission splits, technology and support. The thing nobody mentions is that your lender relationships do not come with you automatically — and one of them may not come with you at all.
Three distinct problems, and they are not the same
1. The lender is not on the new aggregator’s panel at all
This is the worst case, because it is not a paperwork problem.
On one switch, a lender whose panel covered several aggregators did not include the new one, and offered no direct-accreditation fallback. That relationship was effectively suspended — not delayed, suspended. Any pipeline sitting with that lender had to be rehomed.
Check this before you sign, not after. Ask the incoming aggregator for its full lender panel and compare it against the lenders you actually settle with, not the ones you are notionally accredited with.
2. Accreditation shows as disabled because no transfer request was received
A softer version, and fixable — but only if you notice.
On the same switch, a lender’s accreditation showed as disabled post-move because no transfer-of-accreditation request had reached them. A fresh accreditation package had to be submitted directly through the lender’s broker portal: dispute-resolution membership, industry association membership, identification, and the relevant registration and credit-licence details.
Nobody sends that for you. Assume no transfer request has been sent unless you sent it.
3. The lender is off-panel but reachable directly
Where a lender is not on the new aggregator’s panel but does accept direct arrangements, the fix is to request an off-panel approval letter from the aggregator’s compliance team up front.
That single letter unlocks direct lender platform access — the lending application platform, the broker agreement — rather than requiring individual compliance sign-off on every deal you write with them. Getting it once at the start is worth several hours per deal thereafter.
The rule
Accreditation does not follow a broker between aggregators, and some lenders offer no direct fallback at all.
So before switching: list every active lender relationship, check which sit on the new aggregator’s panel, and proactively re-submit accreditation or transfer packages to each. For any that do not appear on the panel, establish whether a direct arrangement is possible before the move, not after.
Two things that catch people afterwards
Withheld commission does not release itself
Where an aggregator withholds commission pending a compliance file review, resolution of the review does not trigger automatic payment. Once corrective actions are confirmed complete and the review is closed, a written follow-up explicitly requesting release is required.
Diarise it. A closed review with unreleased commission can sit indefinitely because everyone assumes the system handles it.
The submission platform is not the file-management system
The lending application platform and the aggregator CRM cover the initial submission and produce a reference number. From that point, each lender has its own separate portal or pathway for checking status, uploading documents and messaging assessors — and portal quality varies sharply between lenders.
Larger-volume lenders generally prefer contact through their help-desk email rather than a phone call, because they triage pre-assessment before an assessor makes the actual decision. Treat the aggregator layer as submission-and-reference-number only, and expect to manage each live file through that specific lender’s own channel.
Accreditation patterns worth knowing generally
Accreditation processes are lender-specific and change, so the fastest route is always to ask the aggregator’s relationship or partnerships team which pattern applies before chasing forms. The recurring patterns:
- Bundled inside the aggregator’s own panel arrangement — nothing separate to do.
- Automatic for that aggregator’s brokers.
- Online-only, completed through the lender’s portal.
- Email request, handled manually.
- Direct contact required, with no form at all.
- Restricted to experienced brokers, or closed to new accreditations entirely for a period.
Major-bank prerequisites vary by qualification and experience bar — some require only an entry-level qualification initially with a diploma after twelve months; others require both a diploma and two years of face-to-face lending experience before a request can even be lodged; and some can simply decline a new broker’s request outright.
Expect an accreditations team to want a resume, identification, industry association membership, a national police clearance and evidence of qualification, with timeframes running from days to several weeks.
When there is a live deal
Accreditation can be fast-tracked. Facing an urgent deal, a lender’s relationship manager escalated internally and had accreditation sorted quickly once a signed broker declaration, identification, association membership evidence and a completed online quiz were supplied.
The converse also holds, and it is worth stating plainly: do not assume accreditation exists for a large or specialist deal just because you have a relationship contact there. A substantial acquisition stalled when it emerged there was no broker accreditation with that lender at all. Sorting it in parallel with the deal, rather than after, avoided losing momentum — but only because it was caught.
General information only, prepared for finance industry professionals. It is not credit assistance, financial product advice, or an offer of finance. Accreditation requirements, panels and processes vary by lender and aggregator and change frequently — confirm current requirements directly. Observations span 2020–2026.