Pepper Money plans to rebrand Optimum Credit after being granted regulatory approval to complete its integration with the second charge lender.

The mortgage lender bought Cardiff-based Optimum Credit in October 2018 from Patron Capital for an undisclosed sum. The deal included a UK second charge loan book of more than £450m.

Pepper Money says it plans to rebrand Optimum Credit under its own name in “approximately three weeks” to create a “comprehensive specialist lender”.

Optimum Credit, launched in 2014, offers a range of variable, fixed and discounted second charge mortgages to homeowners in England, Wales and Scotland.

Pepper Money chief executive Laurence Morey, says: “Our goal at Pepper Money has always been simple — to become the number one specialist lender by delivering a proposition that supports greater financial inclusion.

“We’ve always understood that being the top specialist lender means offering a broad proposition and so, in 2018, we purchased the leading second charge lender in the market.

“Optimum Credit has such a strong reputation, it was very important that we let it continue to do what it has been doing so well for a number of years and so many of our customers and brokers would have noticed little change.

“But in the background, we have been working on getting everything right to bring the two businesses together under the Pepper Money brand.

“Today is an important step on our new journey. The closer collaboration will open up new opportunities for our business and our intermediaries.”