A controversial mortgage lender has stopped lending for a year after launching at the end of January.

 

Self-Cert brought self-certification mortgages back to the UK after they were banned in 2014, but stopped all new business just four days after opening due to overwhelming demand.

 

On its website, Self-Cert said: “We don't want to get people's hopes up, it is highly unlikely that this site will return to lending within the next 12 months.

 

“We don't want to work with other investors and [we] don't want to raise finance on the markets.

 

“We had a set amount to lend at the start [and] have applications for about 10 times that amount.”

 

The lender added that its long-term future is unclear, in particular because there is a new chief executive at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). 

 

Self-Cert launched last month with enough capital to fund around 300 mortgages, but received over 7,500 applications.

 

It side-stepped FCA regulation by basing itself in the Czech Republic, but has come in for criticism by doing so.