Apply for Verified Organisation Assessment

This is the organisation route

An organisation is assessed on what the entity holds, who controls a lender’s money inside it, what it reports, and what survives if it stops trading.

An individual is assessed on what that person does and is competent to do. That is a different scheme with different questions: apply as a Verified Practitioner.

Neither is a listing, which is free, records identity and stated role, and involves no assessment at all.

01 — The processThe five steps, and who does each

You apply. This form. You get a reference on screen and an acknowledgement by email.
You are invoiced, and the fee is paid before the work starts. That order is deliberate: the fee buys the work, so it cannot be contingent on the answer. It is not refunded if the assessment fails.
The Association checks what you have told it. The entity, the registrations claimed, and the four evidence answers — where a lender’s money sits, what happens to records if you stop trading, what lenders are told and when, and how somebody complains. Documents are asked for, and what cannot be evidenced is recorded as not evidenced.
A named individual sits the conduct assessment. An entity cannot sit one, so a person who is accountable for the organisation’s conduct takes the same open-book assessment on the code of conduct that a practitioner takes.
A decision is taken and published — what was checked, against what evidence, what does not apply, what remains open, and the review date. A refusal tells you why and what would change the answer.

The Independent Reviewer does not carry out the assessment. The Reviewer decides applications from connected parties, hears an appeal against any decision, and audits a sample of decisions each year.

02 — The feeWhat the fee buys

The fee is payable for the work of the assessment and is not refunded if the assessment fails. A failed assessment costs exactly what a passed one costs — you are paying for the check, never for its result.

The proposed rate is published on the dues and fees page. It has not been adopted by a general meeting, so nothing is payable yet and nobody is being charged.

03 — The applicationApply

This is the application for an organisation. If you are an individual applying in your own name, the route is Verified Practitioner instead — it asks different questions, because it assesses different things.

The entityTrading nameRegistered legal name of the entity that would contractRegistration number, or why none appliesProvinceWebsite

What the record should say

Verification covers the roles and scope stated on the record and nothing wider. A record that says more than was assessed is worse than no record.

What should the organisation’s record say it does?In your own words. This becomes the wording of the published record, so it is assessed against what you write here and covers nothing wider.

What it finances (optional)

Community-scheme financeProperty and development financeBusiness and corporate lendingReceivables, invoice and trade financeEquipment and asset financeAgriculture and agribusinessInfrastructure, energy and project financeAcquisition, growth and mezzanine financeNon-bank consumer and microcredit

The evidence

These are the questions an organisational assessment turns on. Answer them honestly, including where the answer is “we have not arranged that” — a gap disclosed is assessed, a gap concealed ends the application.

Regulatory registrations held, or why none is requiredWhere a lender's money sits, and who can move itName the account, whose name it is in, whether it is separated from the firm's own funds, and how that separation could be demonstrated. This is the single question that decides most of what happens when something goes wrong. — PLA-STD-001 cl 3.2.2 and 3.3.1What happens to the records if the firm stops tradingWhere the loan records live, who could reach them, and how a lender would evidence a claim if you were not there to help. Say plainly if this has not been arranged. — PLA-STD-001 cl 3.3.2What lenders are told, on what cycle, and by whomReporting frequency, what a report contains, who prepares it, whether anything is independently reviewed or audited, and when arrears are notified. — PLA-STD-001 cl 3.2.4 and 3.3.3How somebody complains to you, and what happens thenA named channel, who answers it, and what record is kept. An unmonitored inbox is not a complaints route. — PLA-STD-001 cl 1.8Anything adverse in the last five yearsRegulatory action, litigation, insolvency, a lender who did not get their money back. Declaring something does not by itself prevent verification. Concealing it is a breach of the undertakings below.

Who is applyingNamePosition held in the organisationEmailTelephone (optional)

The fee

The proposed rate is published on the dues and fees page. It has not been adopted by a general meeting, so nothing is payable yet and nobody is being charged. Dues and fees.

I understand the fee is for the work of the assessment and is not refunded if the assessment fails.

The undertakings

The entity named is the entity that would contract with a lender, and everything stated in this application is accurate and complete at the date of application.
The organisation will provide the documentary evidence the assessment requires, and understands that an assessment cannot proceed without it.
It accepts that the published record will state what was checked, against what evidence, what was not checked, and what remains open — including anything unflattering.
It will not describe an application, or an assessment in progress, as verification, accreditation, approval or endorsement.
It will tell the Association promptly if anything assessed changes, and accepts that a status may be varied, suspended or withdrawn and the change published.

I am authorised to make this application on behalf of the organisation, and it accepts the undertakings above, the standards and the code of conduct.

Apply for assessment

01 — The processThe five steps, and who does each

02 — The feeWhat the fee buys

03 — The applicationApply