Triodos Bank UK
A sustainability bank lending £100k to £20m to renewables, health and social care, social housing, education, organic agriculture and the arts, screened on values before it is screened on credit.
What they do
Triodos Bank UK lends depositors' money only within a defined impact set: renewable energy, health and social care, social housing, charities, education, organic farming, sustainable property and the arts. Facilities run from £100k to £20m, sized against security at around 70 per cent rather than off an EBITDA multiple, and every deal passes a two-stage process, a sustainability assessment against published minimum standards, then conventional credit. Lending is UK-wide from a Bristol base, and the bank publishes the name of every organisation it lends to.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
Inside its sectors this bank is a serious lender rather than a token one, with £20m of capacity and a genuine understanding of how a renewables project, a care operator or a housing provider generates cash. For an acquisition or a refinance in those sectors, particularly where the borrower's mission is part of its commercial identity, it is one of the few institutions where that story helps the credit rather than complicating it.
Where they are not the fit
Outside the impact set there is nothing to discuss: fossil fuels, arms, gambling, tobacco, nuclear and animal testing are excluded outright, and the values screen comes first. The two-stage process takes longer than a mainstream bank's, and pricing is not the cheapest in the market. There is no leveraged or sponsor-backed lending.
Published terms
- Pricing
- Mission/relationship-priced, generally not cheapest; ~70% loan-to-security-value cap
- Speed to terms
- Not published
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- Sponsorless (corporate or charity or SPV or owner-managed); not a private equity-leverage lender
- Where they lend
- UK-wide (offices Bristol; active Scotland)
- How they decide
- Relationship-managed
- Covenants
- Maintenance covenants, tested every period
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.
What rules a deal out
Stated limits, taken from Triodos Bank UK’s own published criteria. A limit is where a lender starts from, not where it always ends: several of these move on a strong enough credit.
- Fails sustainability Minimum Standards or outside impact whitelist
- Profit-before-people-and-planet activities
- No appetite in adult, animal fur, animal testing, fossil fuels or gambling
How they sit against the category
- Its published ceiling is £20m; 20 of the 42 challenger and specialist banks here go at least as high.
- 18 of the 42 publish an indicative price at all; it is one of them.
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 Triodos Bank UK write?
Published facilities reach £20m, and the bottom of the published range is small-ticket business rather than a corporate facility. A band is what a lender states it will do, not what it will do on a given credit.
Does Triodos Bank UK lend to companies without a private-equity sponsor?
Yes. Triodos Bank UK lends to owner-managed and corporate borrowers, and publishes no private-equity sponsor proposition.
Where does Triodos Bank UK lend?
Triodos Bank UK lends in UK-wide (offices Bristol; active Scotland).
What covenants does Triodos Bank UK set?
Maintenance covenants, tested every period. A covenant package is negotiated on the facility; the published style is where the negotiation starts.
What does Triodos Bank UK lend?
The published product set is impact term lending. Published sector focus is arts culture, charities, education, healthcare, nature.
On the record
2025: 30 years of Triodos Bank UK; £2.5bn cumulative impact lending announced (press release.
2025: updated Minimum Standards tightening exclusions.
Sources: triodos.co.uk · triodos.com
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.