Do I need to connect my bank account to apply?

What "connecting" actually means

Connecting your account uses Open Banking — a regulated framework that lets you grant a lender a secure, read-only view of your business account. You authorise it through your own bank's login, so you never share your banking password with anyone, and the access is for viewing transactions only: it cannot move money or make payments. The lender simply reads the trading it needs to assess. The mechanics are covered in the Open Banking guide.

Why connecting is usually faster

When you connect, the lender sees your recent transactions instantly and accurately, which removes the slowest part of most applications — hunting down statements, exporting PDFs and uploading them. It also avoids transcription errors, because the data comes straight from the bank. For working-capital finance, where the assessment turns on live cash flow, that direct view tends to mean a quicker decision and, often, faster funding.

The manual alternative

If you would prefer not to connect, that is fine. You can usually upload recent business bank statements as PDFs instead, and the lender reads the same trading from those. It takes a little longer at your end and the decision may take marginally more time, but it is a perfectly valid route. The key point is that you stay in control of how your information reaches the lender. See what information you need to apply.

What this means for your company

If speed matters, connect through Open Banking — it is secure, read-only and revocable at any time, and it is the fastest path to a decision. If you would rather keep things manual, gather your recent statements before you apply. Either way, Credicorp lends to the UK limited company and does not take a personal guarantee, so it is the company's trading that is being read. For the safety side, see is Open Banking safe.