--- title: "Lending and regulation" description: "Credicorp Limited lends only to UK limited companies and LLPs. Lending to a body corporate is not a regulated credit agreement within Article 60B of the FSMA RAO 2001 and sits outside the FCA consumer-credit regime." canonical: "https://creditcorpgroup.co.uk/lending-and-regulation/" locale: "en-GB" updated: "2026-06-22" --- # Outside the regime, not exempt from it. Creditcorp lends only to UK limited companies and LLPs. That is why its lending sits outside the FCA's consumer-credit rules. This page sets out which law actually applies, and what it means if your company borrows. ## Article 60B, in plain English UK consumer-credit regulation is set by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 — and, specifically, by Article 60B of the [Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001 (SI 2001/544)](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2001/544/article/60B). Article 60B(1) says that "entering into a regulated credit agreement as lender is a specified kind of activity". A specified activity is a regulated activity, which means the lender must be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to carry it out lawfully. The phrase that does the work is "regulated credit agreement", and Article 60B(3) defines a "credit agreement" as: If the borrower (A) is neither an "individual" nor a "relevant recipient of credit", there is no "credit agreement" for Article 60B purposes — and therefore no regulated activity at all. [Article 60L of the same Order](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2001/544/article/60L) defines "relevant recipient of credit" as a small mixed partnership or unincorporated body — and explicitly excludes bodies corporate. "Individual" carries its ordinary, natural-person meaning. ## Why a UK limited company or LLP is outside the regime A UK private limited company is a body corporate by virtue of [section 16 of the Companies Act 2006](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/46/section/16) (incorporation confers separate legal personality). A limited liability partnership is a body corporate by virtue of [section 1 of the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/12/section/1). Neither is an "individual", and Article 60L explicitly excludes bodies corporate from "relevant recipient of credit". So when Credicorp Limited lends to a UK limited company or LLP, the agreement it enters into is not a credit agreement *within* Article 60B — not because it is exempt under Articles 60C to 60H, but because the borrower's status means it falls outside the definition of a credit agreement in the first place. **Outside, not exempt.** ## The exact words Don't take our paraphrase — here is the statutory definition itself. “relevant recipient of credit” means— (a) a partnership consisting of two or three persons not all of whom are bodies corporate, or (b) an unincorporated body of persons which does not consist entirely of bodies corporate and is not a partnership. A UK limited company or LLP is a body corporate, so it is neither limb (a) nor limb (b) — and it is not an “individual”. It therefore sits outside the definition of a credit agreement in [Article 60B](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2001/544/article/60B) altogether. ### Belt and braces: the business-purpose exemption Even for a borrower that *is* within the definition, [Article 60C](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2001/544/article/60C) makes a credit agreement *exempt* where it is entered into wholly or predominantly for the borrower's business and the credit exceeds £25,000 — or where the credit is £25,000 or less and the agreement is entered into wholly for business purposes. So body-corporate lending for genuine business purposes falls outside the consumer-credit regime on the most fundamental ground, with the business-purpose exemption sitting behind it. ## Financial promotions [Section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/8/section/21) prohibits financial promotions, in the course of business, of "investment activity", unless made by an authorised person or with an authorised person's approval. For credit, "investment activity" runs through the controlled-activity at [paragraph 10BA of Schedule 1 to the Financial Promotion Order 2005](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/1529/schedule/1): "entering into a relevant credit agreement … as lender". "Relevant credit agreement" mirrors the Article 60B test. So financial promotions of body-corporate lending — which is not a relevant credit agreement — sit outside the s.21 perimeter too. ## What this means for borrowers In practical terms, a Creditcorp loan to a UK limited company or LLP is unregulated business credit. That has three consequences a borrower should know about: This is not a gap or a loophole — it is how Parliament wrote the statute. The Consumer Credit Act 1974 and the consumer-credit provisions of FSMA exist to protect *individuals* when they borrow. A limited company is a separate legal person with its own balance sheet and its own credit standing, and Parliament has not extended the same statutory protections to body-corporate borrowing. ## Related reading and primary sources The primary law behind the position, alongside the operator's own material. Check the statute yourself — do not take our summary for it. ## What this brand site does not do This page explains the lending position; it is not a loan. The brand site does not take applications, price loans, or accept payments. The active service is at [credicorp.co.uk/business-loans](https://credicorp.co.uk/business-loans/).