Cambridge & Counties Bank
A Leicester-based specialist bank owned by a Cambridge college and a local government pension fund, lending £250k to £5m against commercial property and hard assets on manually underwritten terms.
What they do
Cambridge and Counties Bank is owned jointly by Trinity Hall, Cambridge and the Cambridgeshire Local Government Pension Fund, and lends in three markets: real estate finance, asset finance and classic car finance. Commercial mortgages, bridging and refurbishment facilities and asset finance run from £250k to £5m, underwritten manually and case by case rather than to a score. Title insurance lets investment loans up to £3.5m complete in around three weeks. The footprint is Britain-wide with a pronounced Midlands and regional bias.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
Manual underwriting is what this bank sells. Where a credit has a good story and an awkward edge, a mixed-use property, a short trading history under new ownership, a lease that needs explaining, the bank states plainly that it does not decline simply because a case misses a criterion. For a £3–15m raise it is the counterparty for the property or hard-asset portion, particularly in the Midlands and the North, and particularly where speed to completion matters more than the last basis point.
Where they are not the fit
Lending is secured on property or assets, so an operating-company buyout underwritten on cashflow has no route here, and the bank says as much. The £5m ceiling puts a whole £3–15m senior requirement beyond a single facility in most cases, and Scottish lending starts at £500k. Pricing is set case by case and not published, so a comparison has to be run rather than looked up.
Published terms
- Pricing
- Not published
- Speed to terms
- Title Insurance enables completions in ~21 days (investment loans <=£3.5m); manual underwriting otherwise
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- Corporate or property investor or developer; not a private-equity sponsor LBO lender
- Where they lend
- England, Scotland, Wales; strong Midlands/regional footprint (Leicester HQ)
- How they decide
- Manual underwriting - assesses each application on merits, 'do not simply decline for not meeting all criteria'; relationship/intermediary-led
- Covenants
- Maintenance covenants, tested every period
- Personal guarantee
- Typically required
- Search funds and ETA
- No published route for search-fund or first-time acquirer borrowers
As published by the lender and last reviewed June 2026. Terms quoted on a deal are set by the credit, not by a published band.
The desks that lend
Cambridge & Counties Bank lends through 3 separate books. Which one reads a deal decides the security, the covenant package and the band, so the question is rarely whether Cambridge & Counties Bank lends, but which of these would own it.
Commercial mortgage (owner-occupier / investment / semi-commercial)
- Facility
- from £250k
- Security
- First charge over property + debenture; ~70% max loan to value; occupier must be trading entity or wholly-owned subsidiary under parental guarantee
- Covenants
- Maintenance covenants, tested every period
- Funds
- Acquisition · Growth · Refinance
- Rules out
- Property-secured only; Min £0.5m in Scotland; Not cashflow buy-out debt
Bridging / refurbishment
- Facility
- £500k to £5m
- Security
- First charge over property; refurb/bridging max £2.5m, title-insured to £3.5m
- Covenants
- Maintenance covenants, tested every period
- Funds
- Acquisition · Refinance
- Rules out
- Property-secured only
Asset finance (HP / lease)
- Security
- Secured on financed asset (option-to-purchase HP)
- Funds
- Growth · Refinance
- Rules out
- Experienced SMEs only; Asset Finance Flow product to £150k; larger HP/lease case-by-case
Limits that apply across the firm
Stated limits, taken from Cambridge & Counties Bank’s own published criteria, beyond the ones each desk carries above. A limit is where a lender starts from, not where it always ends: several of these move on a strong enough credit.
- No appetite in adult, crypto, gambling or weapons
How they sit against the category
- Its published ceiling is £5m; 33 of the 42 challenger and specialist banks here go at least as high.
- Like 24 of the 42, it publishes no indicative price — a margin comes from a conversation, not a page.
- It lends through 3 distinct desks, where most firms here run one or two.
Counted across the 42 challenger & specialist banks in this directory, on what each one publishes. What a lender discloses and what it will do are different things.
Questions this page answers
How large a facility does Cambridge & Counties Bank write?
Published facilities run £250k to £5m. A band is what a lender states it will do, not what it will do on a given credit.
Does Cambridge & Counties Bank require a personal guarantee?
On Cambridge & Counties Bank's published terms, a personal guarantee is typically required. What a lender asks for on a given credit is settled in the documents, not by a published stance.
How quickly does Cambridge & Counties Bank move?
Title Insurance enables completions in ~21 days (investment loans <=£3.5m); manual underwriting otherwise. Published timetables describe a clean case; anything unusual in the security or the structure adds to them.
Does Cambridge & Counties Bank lend to search funds or ETA buyers?
Not on the published evidence. Cambridge & Counties Bank publishes no route for search-fund or first-time acquirer borrowers. A searcher's route to a lender usually runs through the quality of the target and the equity behind it.
Does Cambridge & Counties Bank lend to companies without a private-equity sponsor?
Yes. Cambridge & Counties Bank lends to owner-managed and corporate borrowers, and publishes no private-equity sponsor proposition.
Where does Cambridge & Counties Bank lend?
England, Scotland, Wales; strong Midlands/regional footprint (Leicester HQ).
On the record
November 2025: £150m facility to Assetz Capital to fund SME residential developments UK-wide (crowdfundinsider.com.
January 2024: £9.5m funding for Milton Keynes office-complex purchase (theintermediary.co.uk.
2025: Launched Title Insurance for investment loans <=£3.5m (~21-day completions) (ccbank.co.uk.
Sources: ccbank.co.uk
This profile is a curated reference note drawn from public sources, not financial advice or a recommendation. Appetite and terms change; a lender's fit for a given credit is established by approaching it, not inferred from a page.