UK Specialty Finance Terms Index: journalist pack
Covers Edition 1, published 5 June 2026. It's the only edition so far. The data is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
The UK Specialty Finance Terms Index is a small first-party dataset: 13 lenders, 16 general decline reasons plus a decline page for each of those 13 lenders, and 16 asset finance equipment categories, as FundBiz recorded them in June 2026. This pack sets out what each figure counts, what it can't support, the lender-by-lender table behind the counts and how to cite it.
The figures, and what each one counts
Each Edition 1 figure below is recalculated from the records as they stood when the index launched, and matches the published CSV. The right-hand column shows the same measure on our records today.
| Figure | Edition 1 | What it counts | Our records today |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lenders in the index | 13 | Every lender FundBiz had reviewed in June 2026. That includes specialists such as Bizcap, Capify and YouLend, but also Aldermore, Allica Bank, OakNorth, Funding Circle and the government-backed Start Up Loans Company, so it isn't a set of specialist lenders only. | Our Lender Index now holds 103 lenders. The 13 below are compared like for like. |
| Soft search at quote | 9 of 13 | Lenders we recorded as quoting after a soft search, which doesn't leave a mark other lenders can see on the credit file. This is about the lenders. FundBiz itself doesn't run a credit check. | 8 of 13. We changed Liberis when we checked each record against the lender's own website in September 2026. |
| Decision within about 48 hours | 7 of 13 | Lenders whose recorded decision time was given in hours or as same day, with no business days or weeks in the range. | Not recalculated. 11 of the 13 decision times have since been rewritten in the lender's own words, which are mostly best-case figures ("as little as 24 hours"), so a count on the new wording wouldn't measure the same thing. |
| Product types covered | 16 | Asset finance equipment categories with their own guide on FundBiz, from van finance to sound, AV and event equipment finance. It isn't a count of different kinds of finance. | 17, after adding business car finance. |
| Decline reasons mapped | 29 | Decline pages, each with a route forward: 16 general reasons (a CCJ, a thin credit file, under 12 months' trading and so on) plus one "declined by" page for each of the 13 lenders. | 30: 17 general reasons plus 13 lender pages, after adding IVA. |
| FCA regulated | 13 of 13 | Withdrawn on 24 July 2026. Please don't use it. It's still in the June CSV and the Zenodo deposit because both are fixed snapshots. | Not reported. See the note below. |
Soft search and decision time are as each lender described them, not tested by us through applications.
| Figure | Edition 1 | What it counts | Our records today |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lenders in the index | 13 | Every lender FundBiz reviewed in June 2026, including banks and the Start Up Loans Company | Lender Index now holds 103 |
| Soft search at quote | 9 of 13 | Lenders recorded as quoting after a soft search | 8 of 13 |
| Decision within about 48 hours | 7 of 13 | Decision time stated in hours or same day | Not recalculated |
| Product types covered | 16 | Asset finance equipment categories | 17 |
| Decline reasons mapped | 29 | 16 general reasons plus 13 lender pages | 30 (17 plus 13) |
| FCA regulated | 13 of 13 | Withdrawn 24 July 2026, do not use | Not reported |
View as plain-text Markdown
### UK Specialty Finance Terms Index, Edition 1 (June 2026), with what each figure counts | Figure | Edition 1 | What it counts | Our records today | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Lenders in the index | 13 | Every lender FundBiz reviewed in June 2026, including banks and the Start Up Loans Company | Lender Index now holds 103 | | Soft search at quote | 9 of 13 | Lenders recorded as quoting after a soft search | 8 of 13 | | Decision within about 48 hours | 7 of 13 | Decision time stated in hours or same day | Not recalculated | | Product types covered | 16 | Asset finance equipment categories | 17 | | Decline reasons mapped | 29 | 16 general reasons plus 13 lender pages | 30 (17 plus 13) | | FCA regulated | 13 of 13 | Withdrawn 24 July 2026, do not use | Not reported | Source: FundBiz, UK Specialty Finance Terms Index (Edition 1, June 2026) (https://fundbiz.co.uk/research/uk-specialty-finance-terms-index/)
Why the FCA figure was withdrawn
A lender holding FCA authorisation doesn't make the finance it offers a limited company regulated. Under article 60B of the Regulated Activities Order, a regulated credit agreement is one made with an individual or a "relevant recipient of credit", such as a small partnership. A limited company is neither, so a loan to one generally sits outside FCA consumer credit rules whatever the lender's own status. A count of "FCA regulated" lenders suggested protection the borrowers we write for mostly don't have, so we removed it from the index page and the Lender Index. Our guide on whether business lending is regulated by the FCA goes through it in full.
Reporting it accurately
Fair to say
- In June 2026, 9 of the 13 lenders FundBiz reviewed said they'd quote after a soft search. On our corrected records it's 8 of 13.
- 7 of the 13 gave a decision time measured in hours or same day, according to the lenders.
- FundBiz maps 16 general reasons a UK business is declined for finance, now 17, each with a page on what to do next.
- None of the three banks in the set (Aldermore, Allica Bank and OakNorth) was recorded as quoting after a soft search.
Not supported
- A share of "UK specialty lenders" or "the market". 13 lenders chosen by FundBiz to review isn't a sample of the market, and we report counts, not percentages, for that reason.
- "29 reasons businesses are declined." It's 16 reasons plus 13 lender-specific pages.
- "16 types of specialty finance." They're 16 kinds of equipment that asset finance pays for.
- Any figure on approval rates, pricing or average cost. The index doesn't measure them, and we don't average rates because lenders quote them in different forms (factor rates, monthly rates, APR).
- That any lender is FCA regulated for business lending. See above.
The 13 lenders behind the counts
| Lender | Product, June 2026 | Soft search, June | Decision time, June | In the 48-hour count | Soft search, today |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 365 Business Finance | Merchant cash advance | Yes | 24 to 48 hours | Yes | Yes |
| Aldermore | Asset finance, invoice finance, commercial mortgages | No | 5 to 10 business days | No | No |
| Allica Bank | SME term loan + commercial mortgage | No | 5 to 10 business days | No | No |
| Bizcap | Specialist post-decline / fast cash | Yes | Same day | Yes | Yes |
| Capify | Merchant cash advance + term loan | Yes | Same day | Yes | Yes |
| Funding Circle | Term loan | Yes | 1 to 3 business days | No | Yes |
| iwoca | Flexi-loan / line of credit | Yes | Same day to 24 hours | Yes | Yes |
| JPM Capital | Specialist post-decline term loans and MCA | Yes | Same day to 48 hours | Yes | Yes |
| Liberis | Merchant cash advance and BNPL for SMBs | Yes | Same day to 48 hours | Yes | No (changed) |
| OakNorth | SME term loan + bridging | No | 7 to 14 business days | No | No |
| Start Up Loans Company | Government-backed unsecured personal loan to fund a UK start-up | No | 4 to 8 weeks | No | No |
| Time Finance | Asset finance, invoice finance, vehicle finance | Yes | 2 to 5 business days | No | Yes |
| YouLend | Embedded MCA / revenue-based finance | Yes | Same day | Yes | Yes |
June values are the records as committed when the index launched. Each lender's review page shows its current record, including today's decision-time wording.
Downloads
- uk-specialty-finance-terms-index-2026-06.csv: the Edition 1 indicator table, 6 rows, as deposited on Zenodo. It still includes the withdrawn FCA row.
- Zenodo record: the same file behind the DOI, deposited on 5 June 2026.
- UK Business Finance Lender Index: the current lender-by-lender data, with its own DOI and a free API.
All of it is published under CC BY 4.0: reuse it freely, including commercially, as long as you credit FundBiz.
How to cite it
Credit line for an article:
Source: FundBiz, UK Specialty Finance Terms Index (Edition 1, June 2026)
Reference in APA style, as the DOI record generates it:
Mackman, O. (2026). UK Specialty Finance Terms Index 2026 (Edition 1) [Dataset]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20589867
The record names Oliver Mackman, director of Best Business Loans Ltd, which runs FundBiz, as its creator. To cite every future edition at once, use the concept DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20589866. Online, please link to the index page.
Questions and corrections
Email [email protected] with what you're checking. If a figure here turns out to be wrong, the fix goes in our corrections log with the date it was made. Who runs FundBiz and how it's paid are on the press page and how we're funded.
Compiled by Adam Parker for FundBiz. See also the index page and our research hub.