Lloyds Bank
A UK clearing bank whose commercial division provides relationship-led senior, asset-based and structured debt to established mid-market and corporate borrowers.
Why they are included
Lloyds Bank plc is one of the UK's four main clearing banks and lends to companies across the full size spectrum through its commercial banking arm. For mid-market and corporate borrowers it provides senior term loans, revolving credit, acquisition and capital-expenditure facilities, and asset-based lending (ABL) that advances against receivables, inventory, property, plant and machinery. It also runs a structured/sponsor-debt finance team for private-equity-backed transactions, and in 2024 launched a direct-lending partnership with Oaktree to co-fund larger sponsor buyouts. Every facility is priced deal-by-deal against asset quality and credit profile, alongside the bank's wider transactional, hedging and treasury services.
How to read them as a baseline
Lloyds suits an established, cash-generative borrower seeking competitively priced senior or asset-based debt and a long-term clearing relationship rather than a one-off facility. It is well suited where the raise is supported by tangible collateral (debtors, stock, plant, real estate) that an ABL structure can leverage, or where the borrower wants the breadth of a single bank covering lending, transactional banking, FX and hedging. For sponsor-backed deals at the larger end, the Oaktree tie-up lets Lloyds hold meaningfully bigger single-name positions than a clearer typically would. In a 3–15m raise it fits best at the upper half for a trading business with a clean balance sheet and a real working-capital or capex case.
When the market needs to move beyond them
As a clearing bank, Lloyds is cashflow- and covenant-conservative: it is rarely the answer for highly leveraged, asset-light, pre-profit or special-situations borrowers, or for those needing speed and structural flexibility over price. Credit and onboarding cycles are slower than a debt fund's, and decisions sit within a committee process. Its published mid-corporate financing focus skews to companies above roughly £25m turnover and its Oaktree direct-lending venture targets £10–75m EBITDA borrowers — so the smallest end of a 3–15m raise (sub-£5m facilities, smaller or earlier-stage companies) may be better served by its core SME/business-banking products or by a specialist non-bank lender. It does not provide mezzanine, equity or genuine unitranche risk appetite from its own balance sheet.
Published terms
- Pricing
- Bank senior mid-market norm ~SONIA + 250-450 bps + fees
- Speed to terms
- Not published
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- Both - established corporates, MBO/M&A and refinancing; sponsor coverage via corporate teams
- Where they lend
- Wide; SDF offices London, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh
- How they decide
- Regional originators (~30 across 5 offices) + credit committee; some delegated authority for vanilla facilities. Cadence unpublished
- Security
- A debenture over the company; a borrowing base over receivables, inventory and plant
- Covenants
- Maintenance covenants, tested every period; Springing covenant, tested only when a trigger is hit, by facility
As published by the lender and last reviewed July 2026. Terms quoted on a deal are set by the credit, not by a published band.
The desks that lend
Lloyds Bank lends through 2 separate books. Which one reads a deal decides the security, the covenant package and the band, so the question is rarely whether Lloyds Bank lends, but which of these would own it.
Strategic debt finance - mid-market (senior term + RCF)
- Facility
- from £5m
- Security
- A debenture over the company
- Covenants
- Maintenance covenants, tested every period
- Funds
- Acquisition · Dividend recap · Growth · MBO · Refinance
Invoice finance + asset based lending (receivables + inventory + property + P&M)
- Security
- A borrowing base over receivables, inventory and plant
- Covenants
- Springing covenant, tested only when a trigger is hit
- Funds
- Acquisition · Growth · MBO · Refinance
- Rules out
- Facility bands not published; ABL from £200k turnover scaling to corporate; Incumbent-relationship bias
Limits that apply across the firm
Stated limits, taken from Lloyds 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
- 6 of the 12 publish an indicative price at all; it is one of them.
Counted across the 12 clearing & relationship 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 Lloyds Bank write?
Published facilities run from £5m. A band is what a lender states it will do, not what it will do on a given credit.
What security does Lloyds Bank take?
On the published terms, a debenture over the company or a borrowing base over receivables, inventory and plant. What a lender takes on a given facility is set in the documents, not by a published stance.
Does Lloyds Bank lend to companies without a private-equity sponsor?
Yes. Lloyds Bank lends to owner-managed and sponsor-backed borrowers alike, so a company with no private-equity backer is not out of scope on that ground.
Where does Lloyds Bank lend?
Wide; SDF offices London, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh.
What covenants does Lloyds Bank set?
Maintenance covenants, tested every period; Springing covenant, tested only when a trigger is hit, by facility. A covenant package is negotiated on the facility; the published style is where the negotiation starts.
On the record
Lloyds Bank plc is incorporated in England and Wales with company number 00002065.
Lloyds Bank plc is on the FCA Financial Services Register (authorised, regulated by the FCA and Prudential Regulation Authority), authorised since 01/12/2001.
Lloyds Bank offers asset-based lending that releases cash against assets such as receivables, inventory, property, plant and machinery, with each facility priced deal-by-deal on asset quantity, quality, eligibility and credit rating.
Lloyds Bank's mid-corporate financing is positioned to support businesses with over £25 million turnover with growth, acquisition, debt consolidation and equipment/property investment, with a 20-plus-year track record in sponsor-backed UK middle-market transactions.
In July 2024 Lloyds Bank and Oaktree launched a direct-lending partnership targeting UK middle-market sponsor-backed companies of £10–75 million EBITDA, planning to deploy over £1 billion in its first three years with a combined single-name hold capacity of £175 million per transaction.
The Lloyds/Oaktree partnership provides senior debt for new buyouts and refinancings via term, acquisition and working-capital facilities plus agency and ancillary services, intended to simplify funding by removing multiple funding parties.
Sources: lloydsbank.com
This page is a comparison baseline drawn from public sources, not financial advice, a product profile or a recommendation. A clearing bank's role in a given raise is established by testing the credit against the market, not inferred from a page.