Open Banking is the fast, preferred route, but if you genuinely cannot connect your account, we can look at recent business bank statements instead. The trade-off is speed: statements have to be reviewed manually, so a decision usually takes longer.
Why Open Banking comes first
A read-only feed gives us an accurate, tamper-proof picture in seconds, which is what makes fast decisions possible — see how Open Banking speeds up your application. Uploaded statements have to be checked by hand, which adds time and, occasionally, a follow-up question.
If your bank is not yet supported, or a connection will not complete, statements are the fallback rather than a dead end. See what happens if you cannot connect your bank and which business bank accounts you can connect.
What to send
Recent months of statements for the business's own account, in the company name, showing genuine trading. How to get them to us safely is in how to send us a document we asked for, and the wider list is in what documents we might ask you to provide. Whichever route you take, the assessment principles are the same — how we decide whether to lend.
Apply and pick the route that suits your account.
We lend only to UK limited companies and LLPs, the loan is to the company with no director personal guarantee, and this is business finance outside the consumer-credit regime — as an exempt lender under Article 60B of the Regulated Activities Order we sit outside FCA consumer-credit regulation, so the Financial Ombudsman Service and FSCS do not apply.
See also: What happens if you cannot connect your bank?, How Open Banking speeds up your application?, How to send us a document we asked for?.