Business Borrowing - Helping you apply

Helping you apply

If you decide to apply to borrow from HSBC we're here to help you through every step of the application process.

If you're a small business with a turnover up to £2m, you can apply for lending over the phone or by visiting your local branch and speaking to one of our Business Managers. If you're already an HSBC business banking customer, you can apply for lending online via your Business Internet Banking.

If you're a larger business with a turnover of between £6.5m and £30m, you can benefit from specialist business support in one of our Corporate Centres. There you'll find details of the specialist products we provide and the essential information and supporting documents we may ask you for when you apply for them.

Supplying the right information

You can help us assess your application as quickly and as smoothly as possible by making sure you have all the relevant business information and documents. Depending on whether you already bank with us, are a new customer or starting up your business, here's a guide to what we may ask to see.

Essential information


What we need	Why we need it
You and your business	To gain a full understanding of your business, plus how your skills and experience will help achieve your plans
Personal/business investment	To establish your investment in the business compared to what our investment might be.
Purpose	To know how your planned borrowing fits in with your plans and discuss your finance options.
Amount	To determine if the amount you're applying for is appropriate and help structure your borrowing in the most suitable way
Term	To discuss the time period over which the borrowing is required, helping us assess your finance options and your ability to repay
Repayment	To understand how you intend to repay the borrowing and be confident of your ability to do so (eg from trading profit, cashflow or asset disposal) For a new business this may be set out in a business plan and cash flow forecasts For established businesses this is usually the assessment of the historic trading figures, current turnover, as well as plans and projections

Supporting information

Some of the following may be required to help us assess affordability and your ability to make repayments. The more finance you're applying for, the more information and documents we may need to see. If you'd like to know more, please ask your Business Manager for more details.


What we need	Why we need it
Security/assets	To seek some form of appropriate security, such as guarantees, property or other assets that are straightforward to value and realise
Other business interests	To know what other commitments you or your management team has, so we can assess how much attention and focus the business will have
Cash flow forecast and business plans	To demonstrate your ability to think logically about your business strategy and business model
Management accounts and historic accounts	To see evidence of past financial performance (not applicable to start-ups)