Coutts
NatWest Group's private bank, lending £3m to £15m of cashflow, acquisition and asset-based facilities to entrepreneur-owned and family-owned companies and to professional-services partnerships.
What they do
Coutts lends commercially as well as privately. Its commercial arm provides term debt and revolving facilities, acquisition finance, asset-based lending and invoice finance from £3m to £15m, against an EBITDA floor of around £1m, arranged by relationship bankers with sector franchises behind them. Those franchises are unusually deep in hotels, healthcare including care homes and primary care, professional services, media, commercial property and landed estates. Structured and acquisition credits go to committee; pricing is relationship-set rather than published.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
The band matches a £3–15m raise almost exactly, and the sector franchises matter more than the size. A hotel group, a care operator, a law or accountancy partnership funding partner buy-ins or an acquisition, a media business lending against tax credits: in each of these the bank has lent repeatedly and understands the cashflow. Where the shareholders are already private clients, a single relationship covering both sides of the balance sheet is a real advantage and can shorten the path to a decision.
Where they are not the fit
The private-client orientation is a gate. A company with no existing relationship to the bank, and no shareholder likely to become a client, is a colder approach than the published product set suggests, and it is worth testing early. There is no private-equity sponsor proposition, and leverage and covenant packages are bank-standard rather than fund-flexible. Pricing is not published, so it has to be competed against alternatives rather than assumed.
Published terms
- Pricing
- Not published
- Speed to terms
- Not published
- EBITDA floor
- From about £1m
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- Sponsorless - entrepreneur-, owner- and family-owned corporates and professional-services partnerships; not private-equity sponsor-focused
- How they decide
- Relationship-led; dedicated commercial bankers front the account, sector heads own the franchise, structured/acquisition deals to credit committee; no published cadence or delegated-authority limits
- Security
- A debenture over the company; a borrowing base over receivables, inventory and plant; receivables
- Covenants
- Maintenance covenants, tested every period
- Personal guarantee
- Typically required
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
Coutts 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 Coutts lends, but which of these would own it.
Commercial cashflow term / RCF & acquisition finance
- Facility
- £3m to £15m
- Security
- A debenture over the company
- Covenants
- Maintenance covenants, tested every period
- Funds
- Acquisition · Growth · Refinance
- Rules out
- Relationship/private-client orientation may gate non-clients
Asset-based lending
- Facility
- £3m to £15m
- Security
- A borrowing base over receivables, inventory and plant
- Funds
- Acquisition · Growth · Refinance
Invoice financing
- Security
- Receivables
- Funds
- Growth · Refinance
Limits that apply across the firm
Stated limits, taken from Coutts’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 £15m; 25 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 Coutts write?
Published facilities run £3m to £15m. It looks for EBITDA from about £1m. A band is what a lender states it will do, not what it will do on a given credit.
Does Coutts require a personal guarantee?
On Coutts'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.
What security does Coutts take?
On the published terms, a debenture over the company, a borrowing base over receivables, inventory and plant or receivables. What a lender takes on a given facility is set in the documents, not by a published stance.
Does Coutts lend to companies without a private-equity sponsor?
Yes. Coutts lends to owner-managed and corporate borrowers, and publishes no private-equity sponsor proposition.
What covenants does Coutts set?
Maintenance covenants, tested every period. A covenant package is negotiated on the facility; the published style is where the negotiation starts.
Sources
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.