How We Lend — Responsible Business Lender UK
How we decide as a responsible business lender
When you apply for a loan with Credicorp, this is exactly what happens behind the scenes — what we look at, what we do not look at, where a computer makes the first call and where a real person takes over.
Credicorp is a responsible business lender. We lend to UK limited companies and LLPs, not to consumers, and we lend to the company rather than to the director personally — there is no personal guarantee and no charge over your home. Every charge that can apply to a product is set out up front, with no hidden fees on our business loan.
We are required to be transparent about this under Article 22 of the UK GDPR. We also think it is the right thing to do — if you are trusting us with a decision that affects your business, you should be able to see how that decision is made. Being a responsible, transparent lender starts with showing our working in plain English.
Lending to limited companies sits outside FCA consumer-credit regulation, so we are not bound by the FCA Consumer Duty. We treat its fair-treatment outcomes as a voluntary benchmark anyway, because we think a fair, ethical lender should hold itself to that standard whether or not the rules require it.
What we look at when lending to limited companies
Ilka application is assessed on the facts that maitter tae a short-term business lendin decision. The main anes are:
- Affordabilitie. We need to see that the loan can be repaid on the schedule offered. The strongest evidence is your last six months of business bank statements. We accept these in two ways — through an Open Banking connection (read-only, you stay in control) or as PDF statements uploaded straight into the application.
- Credit reference data. A business credit check on the company at Experian Business, Creditsafe an Equifax Business. We dinna rin a consumer credit check on the director personally for the lendin decision.
- AML an sanctions screenin. A staunart anti-money-launderin an sanctions check on the director an the company. This confirms we are dealin wi the fowk we think we are dealin wi an that the lendin isna bein uised for onythin we arena alloued tae lend for.
- Yer history wi us. Gin ye are a returnin customer, hou a previous lendin wi us wis managed maitters. A clean repeyment record is a strang positive signal.
- Vulnerabilitie signals. Gin onythin in the application or yer history suggests ye micht be gaun throu a haurd time, we slaw the decision doon an speir a human tae review it. The aim is tae lend responsibly, no tae lend reflexively.
Whit we dinna look at
There's rowth o things we deliberately haud oot o the decision acause they arena a fair or accurate basis for lendin:
- Demographics. Age (beyond the basic 18+ check), gender, ethnicity, religion, marital status, sexual orientation, disability or any other protected characteristic is not a factor and never will be.
- Postcode-only inference. Where your business is located is one signal among many — it informs registered-office checks and sanctions screening — but a decline does not happen because of a postcode.
- Social media. We dinna scrape Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, X or ony ither platform for application signals. Yer social profile isna relevant tae whether we lend tae yer business.
- Hearsay an opinion. Only the data described above goes into the file. Anything else — a rumour, a forwarded email, a third-party opinion — is not part of the assessment.
Automatit an human review
For straightforward applications, the first decision is automated. Our system reads the bank statements, runs the credit and AML checks, applies our policy rules, and produces an outcome within a few minutes. That is what lets us offer a same-day decision for most customers.
But automation is not the last word. Under Article 22 of the UK GDPR, you have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing where that decision significantly affects you. We respect that by making every decline reviewable by a human on request, and by routing certain cases — vulnerability signals, returning customers with an unusual pattern, anything our system is unsure about — to a person from the start.
Your Article 22 right in one sentence
Gin yer application is declined an ye wad like a human tae review it, ye can speir — an we will. The original decision is set aside, a member o oor credit team reviews the file frae scratch, an ye get a fresh written ootcome.
In short: is ma loan decision automatit?.
Hou tae challenge a decision
Gin ye hae been declined an want it lookit at again, ye hae several routes:
- Open a help request inben the customer portal.
- Email or write tae us uisin the details on oor Get in Touch page.
- Phone oor credit team durin office oors.
However you raise it, we will: acknowledge the request promptly, take the original decision off the table, ask a credit reviewer (a person, not the system) to look at the file with fresh eyes, and write to you with the outcome. Responsible lending means a no is never the end of the conversation — a human review is always open to you, at no cost, and we will explain the reasons behind the fresh outcome in plain English. We treat every challenge as a chance to check our own working, because a fair lender should be willing to be told it got something wrong.
Ye can an aw speir for a body tae review yer decision.
Open Banking
Connectin yer business bank accoont via Open Banking usually speeds up the decision. We can read the statements directly, sae there is nae wait for a PDF upload. Open Banking is a regulated framewark: the accoont-information connection is read-only, ye authorise it throu yer ain bank, an ye can revoke it at ony time. That data connection cannae muive siller, set up peyments or chynge onything on the accoont.
Mair detail on the technology that supports aw this is on oor Our Technology page. Information on hou we treat applicants gaun throu a haurd time is on oor Vulnerability page. The hale regulatory disclosures — privacy, automatit decisionin, Open Banking processor, credit reference data — bide on oor Legal & Compliance page.
Gang deeper: the technology ahint oor decisions.
Common questions about how we lend
Is Credicorp an FCA-regulated lender UK?
Credicorp lends exclusively to UK limited companies and LLPs for business purposes. Business lending to companies falls outside FCA consumer-credit regulation (CONC/CCA 1974), so the FCA does not regulate this product as a consumer lender. We voluntarily benchmark against FCA fair-treatment outcomes because we believe it reflects the right standard for a responsible business lender.
Does Credicorp require a personal guarantee?
No. We lend to the company, not to the director personally. There is no personal guarantee and no charge over a director's personal assets or home. The company is the borrower; the assessment is on the company's affordability and creditworthiness.
Are there hidden fees on a Credicorp business loan?
No. Every charge that can apply to a product is stated up front in the Key Information Sheet before you sign. We do not add fees after drawdown that were not disclosed at origination. A no hidden fees business loan means the cost is what we say it is.
What does it mean to lend to the company not the director?
When we say we lend to the company, it means the borrowing entity is the limited company or LLP — not the individual director. Your personal credit file is not used in the lending decision (we run a business credit check on the company, not a personal one on you), and personal assets are not at risk under the loan terms.