When you apply, we need to see how the company's main bank account behaves over roughly the last six months. There are two ways to share that, and people often ask which to pick. The honest answer is that both lead to the same decision — the difference is mostly speed and preference. Here is how to choose.
The two routes, side by side
- Open Banking (read-only). Where it is offered, you authorise a regulated provider on your own bank's login screen, and the statements come straight to us. It is the quickest route and there is nothing to upload or mistype. It is read-only — it cannot move money — and you can switch it off at any time.
- Upload statements yourself. You download PDF or CSV statements from your bank and add them to the application. This is fully supported and, for many applicants, the default. It works even if your bank does not support Open Banking, or you simply prefer not to connect.
Which should you choose?
Choose Open Banking if you want the fastest path and you are happy to authenticate with your bank — it keeps the same-day-decision window as wide as possible. Choose uploading if your bank does not offer Open Banking, the connection will not complete, you do not have online banking, or you would simply rather share the files yourself. Neither choice counts for or against you; we read the same six months either way, and we never move money from the account.
If you upload, what we need
- The last six months of statements on the business account the loan would be paid to.
- Complete months, downloaded directly from your bank as PDFs or CSVs — not screenshots or photographs.
- Uploaded into the application at the step provided.
Uploaded statements take a little longer to process than a live connection, which is the only practical trade-off. If your bank only lets you download a few months at a time, upload what you have and tell us — we will follow up rather than block the application. See what happens if you cannot connect your bank.
Is Open Banking safe, and can I revoke it?
Yes on both. We never see your banking password, the access is read-only, and every provider is FCA-regulated. A connection lasts up to 90 days before it must be renewed, and you can revoke it instantly from your portal or your bank's app, with no effect on a loan you have already signed. See what Open Banking is and is it safe and how consent and revocation work.
What we do with what we see
However you share them, the statements are read and categorised to assess the company's affordability — see what information goes into a lending decision and how we verify bank statements. We are reading the account, never moving money from it.