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The Key Information Sheet, explained.
Before a company signs a loan agreement, a clear one-page summary of the deal is worth more than pages of dense terms. This guide explains what a Key Information Sheet is, why a plain pre-contract summary matters, and what a good one tells a director at a glance.
What a Key Information Sheet is
A short, plain summary of the loan, given before the full agreement, so the headline terms are clear up front.
A Key Information Sheet — often shortened to KIS — is a brief, plain-language summary of a loan, set out before the full agreement. Its job is to put the things that matter most on a single page: who is lending, how much, what it costs, over what term, and what happens if something goes wrong. It is a companion to the loan agreement, not a replacement for it. The full, binding terms still live in the agreement itself — how to read which is covered in reading a business loan agreement.
The value of a summary like this is simple. A loan agreement is a contract, written to be precise, and precision can crowd out clarity. A director scanning a dense agreement can miss the figure that actually matters. A good pre-contract summary lifts the headline terms out of the small print so they can be checked in a minute, before time and effort are sunk into signing.
What a good one sets out
A useful summary answers the questions a director would ask first — in plain figures, not jargon.
| It tells you | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Who is lending and who is borrowing | Confirms the company is the borrower, named with its Companies House number. |
| The amount advanced | The principal the company receives. |
| The cost | Interest or fee, any establishment fee, and the total to repay in pounds. |
| The term and repayments | How long, and on what cadence the company repays. |
| Any cost cap | Whether total cost is capped — for example at 100% of the amount borrowed. |
| Security and guarantees | Whether any charge over company assets or personal guarantee is required. |
| Late and default charges | What a missed payment costs, and how those charges are capped. |
| Your right to withdraw | Any cooling-off or withdrawal window after signing. |
The point is that none of these should be a surprise discovered deep in the agreement. A summary that shows them plainly lets a director weigh the deal before committing, and tells you something reassuring about the lender: they are willing to state the terms simply rather than hide them.
Why a clear summary matters
Clarity before contract is a sign of a lender that expects to be read, not skimmed.
A lender that puts its key terms in plain sight is making a statement about how it wants to do business. Short-term business credit is priced differently from a mortgage or a multi-year term loan, and the figures can look unfamiliar — which is exactly why a plain summary helps. The reasoning behind short-term pricing, with no invented rate, is set out in how short-term business finance is priced, and the way a headline APR can mislead on a loan lasting weeks is in flat fees versus APR.
The opposite is a warning sign. If the genuinely important terms — the total cost, a personal guarantee, an early-repayment penalty — are hard to find or absent from any summary, that is a reason to slow down. A clear pre-contract summary is part of what a borrower should look for in any offer, and it sits alongside the wider checks in a borrower's due-diligence checklist before taking finance.
How it works with Credicorp
When a Credicorp application is approved, the company is given a Key Information Sheet alongside the Business Loan Agreement before anything is signed. The agreement is between Credicorp Limited and the company. The borrower is the company; there is no personal guarantee, and no charge over company assets. Every product is bounded by a 100% cost cap, so the company's total exposure is fixed and knowable from the outset — the way that cap works is explained in cost caps explained.
The figures behind the summary are the operator's published terms: the Business Bridging Loan runs from £50 to £500 over 14 to 84 days at 0.25% per day on the outstanding principal, with a one-off £5 establishment fee. You can work through the cost for yourself before you ever see a sheet, using the Bridging Loan cost calculator. Signing happens on the operator's site — the full walkthrough is at credicorp.co.uk/how-it-works.
Where to go next
- Reading a business loan agreement — the full terms behind the summary
- Cost caps explained — how the 100% cap bounds total cost
- Flat fees versus APR — reading the cost figure correctly
- Early repayment and refunds — a term worth finding on the sheet
- Bridging Loan cost calculator — work the figures yourself
- A borrower's due-diligence checklist — what to look for in any offer