Registration of lenders and peer-to-peer loan brokers 

Regional State Administrative Agencies maintain a register of consumer credit providers and peer-to-peer loan brokers. Credit providers and peer-to-peer loan brokers must submit a registration notification in order to be included in the register.

About registration

Submit a registration notification if you intend to offer consumer credit or broker peer-to-peer loans described in the Consumer Protection Act. 

The registration requirement does not apply to 

  • creditors and payment service providers supervised by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority; 
  • pawnbrokers; 
  • the state, municipalities or other public bodies; 
  • companies that grant credit only for financing the purchase of products sold by them; and 
  • companies that operate in another European state and offer consumer credit or temporarily broker peer-to-peer loans in Finland.

The requirements for registration in the creditor and peer-to-peer loan broker register are as follows: 

  • the applicant has the right to engage in trade in Finland; 
  • the applicant is not bankrupt;  
  • the applicant is trustworthy; 
  • the applicant has sufficient knowledge of credit activities; and  
  • if the applicant is a natural person, they must be of age and legally competent. 

Further information on the requirements for registration and information required to assess them is available in the registration notification form’s completion instructions. 

A company listed in the creditor and peer-to-peer loan broker register must, on its own initiative, inform the Regional State Administrative Agency of changes to the following information: 

  • Changes to the activities performed by the company (such as commencing or terminating peer-to-peer lending activities or receiving client funds) 
  • Changes to parties whose trustworthiness has been assessed in connection with registration 
  • Changes to registered credit activity specialists 
  • Adoption of a new business name or auxiliary business name or the removal of an auxiliary business name 
  • Changes to contact information 
  • Termination of the company’s activities

You can notify the register of changes with a free-form notification or by using the notification-of-change form. 

Inform us in your registration notification if you intend to grant consumer credit related to residential property.  

Inform us in your registration notification if you intend to receive client funds as part of your activities. Attach an explanation of how you process and store client funds to your registration notification. 

Based on the registration notification and attached explanation, we will assess whether the applicant is suitable to receive client funds.  

We strive to process registration notifications within two weeks of receipt. 

The creditor's and peer-to-peer loan broker's registration decision and changes to the register data are subject to a fee. 

For more information on our fees, visit page Fees and charges.

Offering consumer credit or brokering peer-to-peer loans without the appropriate registration is a crime. Offenders may be ordered to pay a fine or sentenced to up to six months of imprisonment. 

If you suspect that an unregistered company is offering consumer credit or brokering peer-to-peer loans, please report it to the Regional State Administrative Agency. 

If you have submitted a registration notification to the creditor and peer-to-peer loan broker register, you have the obligation to provide the Regional State Administrative Agency with information to assess whether you meet the conditions of registration.  

Under the Act on the Registration of Certain Credit Providers and Credit Intermediaries, the trustworthiness and suitability of some foreign persons for receiving client funds must be assessed. We require certain information for this purpose. Corresponding information is also required in certain other cases, such as in the case of Finnish citizens living abroad. 

If the trustworthiness of a foreign person needs to be assessed, please submit the following information regarding said person: 

  • A criminal records extract (no more than three months old) 
  • An extract from the reg­is­ter of business prohibitions 

If the suitability of a foreign person to receive client funds needs to be assessed, please submit the following information regarding said person: 

  • An extract from the enforcement register 
  • An extract from the register of debt adjustments 
  • A credit report copy 
  • A tax decision 
  • If any of these documents are unavailable, we will assess the need for that document on a case-by-case basis. 

If you need more information, you can contact us by e-mail: [email protected]

Contact information for registries

Links to legal texts

Consumer Protection Act (38/1978) (in Finnish)

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