# What Open Banking shares.

Connecting your business account through Open Banking can make an
 affordability check quicker — but it is fair to ask exactly what it lets
 a lender see. This guide explains, in plain English, what is read, what
 is not, who is in control, and how to switch the connection off. And as
 ever, **the company borrows, never you personally**.

Open Banking is simply a secure, regulated way to share your own bank
 data with a provider you choose — with your consent, and only for as
 long as you allow it. In lending, it replaces the old routine of
 downloading statements and emailing them across.

Creditcorp is the growing name for the Credicorp group, and Credicorp
 Limited is the lender behind it. When a company applies, an Open Banking
 connection is offered as a faster way to show recent trading than sending
 statements by hand. This page is a guide, not an application — the exact
 requirements are set out on the lender's own site,
 [credicorp.co.uk](<?= e( CCUK_OPERATOR ) ?>/how-it-works/).

The borrower is the **company** — a UK private limited
 company (Ltd), LLP or PLC — not the director who signs. The account you
 connect is the **business** account, and a director's
 personal banking is not part of a company affordability check. This is
 **not** a personal or consumer process.

## How the connection is made

You are always the one who approves it, at your own bank's login.

Open Banking never asks you to hand over your banking username and
 password to anyone else. Instead, you are sent to your own bank's secure
 login or app, where you sign in exactly as you normally would, choose
 which account to share, and approve the request. The bank then issues a
 limited, time-bound permission that lets the provider read the data you
 agreed to — and nothing more.

Two things follow from that. First, your bank login details stay with
 your bank; they are never shared with the lender. Second, because you
 grant the permission at your bank and your bank records it, you can see
 it and switch it off from the same place at any time. The framework is
 the UK's regulated Open Banking standard, built around your consent.

## Exactly what is — and is not — read

For an affordability check, the access is read-only: it can look, but it cannot touch.

In short, it is the same information that already sits on your
 business bank statements — shared securely instead of printed.

Reading information and initiating a payment are separate Open Banking
 permissions. A statements check only ever uses the read-only one.

## How to switch it off again

Consent is yours to give and yours to withdraw — and it expires on its own anyway.

An Open Banking connection is not a permanent door left open. It is a
 specific, revocable consent, and you can end it whenever you like.
 There are three things worth knowing:

Revoking access stops future reads; it does not erase information already
 used in a decision, which the lender keeps and handles under its privacy
 information. How the lender uses and protects business and personal data,
 and your rights over it, are set out at
 [credicorp.co.uk](<?= e( CCUK_OPERATOR ) ?>/).

## Why a company might choose it

It is optional — but for many directors it is simply the easier route.

[How affordability is assessed →](https://creditcorp.co.uk/learn/how-affordability-is-assessed/)

## One thing about who can borrow

Credicorp lends only to bodies corporate — UK limited companies and
 LLPs. Under Article 60B of the FSMA Regulated Activities Order 2001,
 lending to a body corporate is not a regulated consumer-credit
 agreement, so this is business credit rather than consumer credit, and it
 is not for sole traders or for borrowing in a personal name. The full
 position is set out on
 [lending and regulation](https://creditcorp.co.uk/lending-and-regulation/).

## Open Banking questions

The questions directors ask most. For anything specific to your business, the lender's team are at credicorp.co.uk.

## Where to go next

Open Banking is one input into a wider check, so the companion guides
 fill in the rest:
 [how affordability is assessed](https://creditcorp.co.uk/learn/how-affordability-is-assessed/)
 sets out everything the lender weighs,
 [what you need to apply](https://creditcorp.co.uk/learn/what-you-need-to-apply/)
 lists the practical bits to have ready, and
 [the jargon buster](https://creditcorp.co.uk/learn/business-finance-jargon-buster/)
 defines the terms in passing. The exact data ask lives with the lender,
 and the whole series sits on the
 [Learn hub](https://creditcorp.co.uk/learn/).
 You can also dip into the
 [calculators and tools](https://creditcorp.co.uk/tools/)
 before you apply, or read the wider group story at
 [creditcorpgroup.co.uk](<?= e( CCUK_GROUP ) ?>/).

[See how it works at credicorp.co.uk →](<?= e( CCUK_OPERATOR ) ?>/how-it-works/)

## Ready when you are

Applying, drawing down and managing your account all happen on the lender's site, credicorp.co.uk.