Key pointers for filling in the shareholder information on our application

We’ve been hearing that the shareholder section of our application is the most time-consuming part for our brokers, so we’ve outlined exactly what’s required here in order to make this process much smoother for you. 

Shareholder requirements

When you fill in your client’s application, you are required to enter the name, date of birth and postcode of the shareholders of your client’s business.

However, you only need to enter information for shareholders that cover 50% ownership of the business, rather than every shareholder involved. And if you’re applying for a business loan and not a Government-backed loan, the shareholders you enter will be asked to sign a personal guarantee – so please only enter the details of the shareholders that your client is happy to be included. 

By making our application form clearer about this, we hope that the process will be much smoother for you and your clients when the loan documents are submitted. 

Credit searches

We’ve received a few questions about the credit checks we carry out, so we wanted to make sure the process is really clear for you and your clients. 

When you submit your client’s application, we will run a credit search on the business, and a quotation credit search on the shareholders you enter.¹ 

A quotation credit search, also known as a ‘soft’ credit search, will appear on a personal client or business credit report – but it is not visible to other lenders, and will not affect a credit score. 

We run this quotation credit search to assess the creditworthiness of the shareholders, as well as for fraud and identity checks. If your client chooses to take a loan with us, we will then run a credit search on the shareholders. 

Fast, hassle-free business loans 

Don’t forget that if you offer your clients a Funding Circle business loan, they can borrow up to £500,000 – and you could get a maximum of 6% commission if they accept their offer.

Our loans start from just 2.9% per year and 70% of applications now get an instant decision, making it one of the quickest and most affordable options for your clients. 

If you have any questions about our loan offering and application, feel free to contact the team on broker@fundingcircle.com. 

¹ Please note this process is different for non-limited applications.