Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015

5 Small and medium sized businesses: information to finance platforms U.K.

(1) Where—

(a) a small or medium sized business has applied to a designated bank for a loan or other credit facility, and

(b) the application has been unsuccessful,

the Treasury may by regulations impose a duty on the bank to provide specified information about the business to designated finance platforms.

(2) The regulations—

(a) must provide that the duty only applies where the business to which the information relates agrees to its information being provided to the designated finance platforms;

(b) may require a bank—

(i) to seek the agreement of a business for the purposes of paragraph (a);

(ii) to ask the business for any of the specified information that the bank does not already have;

(iii) to provide the information to the finance platforms within a specified time period.

(3) The regulations may make further provision about the duty in subsection (1), which may in particular include provision about—

(a) the types of loans and credit facilities that trigger the duty,

(b) the circumstances in which an application is to be considered unsuccessful, and

(c) the finance platforms to which information must be provided.

(4) Where a finance platform has received information by virtue of subsection (1), the Treasury may by regulations—

(a) impose a duty on the finance platform to provide specified information to all finance providers requesting access to the information, and

(b) impose a duty on the finance platform to provide specified information about a particular business to a finance provider where—

(i) the finance provider has requested information about the business, and

(ii) the business has agreed to its information being provided to the finance provider.

(5) Information specified for the purposes of subsection (4)(a) must be in such a form that no individual business, and no person associated with the business, can be identified.

(6) The regulations may provide that the duty in subsection (4)(a) or (b) does not apply unless—

(a) the finance provider or business agrees to the finance platform's terms and conditions;

(b) the finance provider complies with specified requirements about the use and disclosure of the information.

(7) The regulations may make further provision about the duties in subsection (4)(a) and (b), including in particular provision—

(a) requiring the finance platform to provide the information within a specified time period;

(b) setting out how a request by a finance provider must be made to a finance platform;

(c) setting out how a business may indicate agreement for the purposes of subsection (4)(b)(ii);

(d) about the time period for which information must be kept by the finance platform;

(e) about the removal of information from the finance platform.

(8) The regulations may make provision—

(a) prohibiting finance platforms from charging fees to small and medium sized businesses, or

(b) permitting finance platforms to charge fees to small and medium sized businesses.

(9) The regulations must make provision for the designation of banks and finance platforms by the Treasury, and the regulations may in particular provide for—

(a) conditions that must be met for a bank or finance platform to be designated;

(b) considerations that the Treasury may take into account before deciding whether to designate a bank or finance platform;

(c) the Treasury to consider the advice of another person before making a designation;

(d) the procedure for designating a bank or finance platform;

(e) how the list of designated banks and finance platforms must be published;

(f) the revocation of a designation.

(10) In this section “specified” means specified or described in the regulations.