These terms and conditions (“Terms of Service”), which include our Privacy Policy, govern the use of the credit broking service (“Service”) provided by Funding Options Limited (“we”, “us”, “our”) to any business registered with us (“you”, “your”).
Funding Options Limited is incorporated in England & Wales with its registered office at Funding Options, 2-102, 33 Queen Street, London, EC4R 1BR (company number 07739337), authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (firm registration number 727867), and registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (reference number Z2992318).
We are a credit broker, not a lender. We are also a “designated finance platform” under The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, which means that if your application for finance from certain designated banks is unsuccessful, the bank must provide us with certain “specified information” related to that application. The Service includes a process for matching your profile, including any specified information we receive from any designated bank(s) to the lending criteria of the finance providers we work with (each a “Finance Provider”) in such a form that no individual business, and no person associated with the business, can be identified. The initial matching process satisfies our obligation under The Small and Medium Sized Business (Finance Platforms) Regulations 2015 (“the Regulations”) to make available to the Finance Provider the specified information we receive from designated banks in that form. Where we have multiple Finance Providers with lending criteria matching your requirement, we may refer you to the Finance Provider that we believe most closely satisfies your requirements. We only maintain a Finance Provider’s access to the specified information related to such a business until either:
30 days after the date by when that information states that you require finance (or, if such date is not known, the date by which you have requested finance); or
the end of the Business Day after you inform us that either you do not wish any Finance Provider to access such information or you no longer require finance.
“Business Day” means any day which is not a Saturday, a Sunday or a bank or public holiday in England.
The Finance Provider may opt in or out of the shortlist of Finance Providers who might potentially provide financing to you. We will then present that list to you, and you may request us to provide the information we hold about you, including information that identifies you and any relevant person associated with the business. By the end of the Business Day following the day it receives any such request by you, we shall provide the relevant Finance Provider with that information as required under the Regulations.
Our Service is intended for your own business-related purposes only.
We do not provide debt counselling or debt advice. If you'd like support in this area, you may find contacting the Business Debtline useful.
We cannot guarantee that our Service will be successful for you, neither are we obliged to provide our Service to you.
Our Service is based on information from third parties over which we have no control, and may contain inaccuracies or errors.
Where you have not made us aware of your specific needs, it is your responsibility to ensure that any options presented through the Service meet your requirements.
Content and information provided as part of the Service may not be timely or correct, and will change without notice, meaning that it is for your general information and use only.
To support free usage of our Service, we must expressly exclude liability for any inaccuracies, service failures or errors to the fullest extent permitted by law. Accordingly, we cannot provide any warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy, timeliness, performance, completeness or suitability of the information offered through the Service.
To the extent permitted by applicable law, each party shall only be liable to the other party for any loss or damage which results as a directly foreseeable consequence of its breach of this Agreement or negligence (except in the case of fraud or willful misconduct).
Nothing in these terms shall seek to exclude or limit liability for death or personal injury or any other liability that cannot be lawfully excluded or limited.
While the Service is free of charge to you, we may receive commission from Finance Providers for introductions we make to them. We have a Conflicts Policy to detect and manage any potential conflicts that might arise.
The Service is not intended as advice or to be relied upon by you in any way, including as the basis for making or not making any decision, and you should obtain your own independent financial, accounting, tax and/or legal advice concerning your activities in connection with the Service and any finance application and/or agreement.
You use and download information from the Service at your own risk and should use software to detect and disinfect viruses in any information you use and download.
The availability of third party sites, links, services or information via the Service does not constitute any recommendation, advice, endorsement or publication by us and we are not responsible for any such sites, links, services or information provided by any third party.
We reserve the right to change any aspect of the Service at any time without notice or to suspend access to the Service, or end it.
By using the Service, you agree to notify us promptly of any changes in the details you have provided to us. You shall ensure that all information you provide to us is complete, true, up-to-date and accurate in all respects. You are solely responsible at your own cost and expense for creating backup copies and replacing any information you provide via the Service.
You agree that we and our lenders may carry out identity verification and credit checks on you and your owners or directors. You and your owners or directors acknowledge that credit reference agencies link together the records of you and anyone that you have advised is a financial associate (e.g. someone with whom you have a joint credit account) including previous and subsequent names of parties to the account. Links between financial associates will remain on yours and their credit reference files until such time as you or your associate successfully files for a disassociation with the credit reference agencies. We and any Finance Provider may take into account information about yours and your owners’ or directors’ financial associates in yours or their credit reference.
You agree to keep your username and password secure and when they are used to log-in we will assume that you are the person giving instructions and you will be liable for them unless and until you notify us that this is no longer the case. You are responsible for any activity through the Service arising out of any failure to keep your password secure. We may refuse or disable your access at our sole discretion without notice or explanation where it is lawful to do so.
If at any time you wish to cease using the Service, you may contact us to request deactivation of your account. Within a reasonable time of this notification, we will remove any third-party data access you may have given us. Historical data will be maintained by us as described below.
If you have agreed to pay us for any aspect of the Service, you recognise that we may withdraw your rights to use the Service as a result of non-payment.
You agree not to use the Service in a way that harms our reputation, and you agree to comply with all applicable laws and regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
You agree to indemnify and hold us, our staff, officers, group companies and partners harmless from loss, damage or claim, made by third parties and/or incurred as a result your breach of these terms.
We will make reasonable efforts to provide support for the Service during office hours by email on support@fundingoptions.com, or by telephone on 0333 344 1015.
You recognise that unless otherwise stated in writing we do not grant you any intellectual property rights in relation to the Service, which include copyright, database rights, our trademarks, domain names, design rights and patents.
In addition, the Service contains material which is owned by us or our licensors, including but not limited to source code, algorithms, databases, copy and graphics, and you recognise that unless otherwise stated in writing, we do not grant you any rights to these. You may only link to the home page of the Service. You must not display, frame or otherwise surround the contents or any page from the Service, or allow such content or page to be displayed framed or otherwise surrounded, with material not originating from us without our prior written consent.
You will not acquire any proprietary rights (including database rights) to any information provided via the Service.
You will not:
use the Service to:
collect any information of other users from the Service for the purpose of sending unsolicited communications outside the Service;
create a database of information obtained from this Service otherwise than for your own records;
transfer any information form the Service to any third party except where expressly permitted by us;
use automated scripts to collect information from or otherwise interact with the Service;
use the Service in any unlawful manner or in any manner that could harm the Service or the servers on which it is hosted;
register any person or entity on, or otherwise use, the Service without that person or entity's prior written authorisation;
impersonate any person or entity, create a false identity in relation to the Service or falsely state or otherwise mislead or deceive us;
remove any copyright or trade mark notice(s) from any material on or obtained via the Service.
We take data protection very seriously and we are committed to taking care of your business data in accordance with the provisions of our Privacy Policy.
As part of providing our Service to you our systems will gather data provided by you, in some instances from your systems such as accounting software, as well as from third-party sources.
As part of providing our Service to you we may share data provided by you with our panel of approved Lenders, and those Lenders will share with us information regarding your case such as its current status and outcome
Our usage of such data may involve interfacing to third party systems, to enhance the databases we use to provide the Service and our Services to others, and for monitoring of performance, statistical analysis and the identification of improvements to the Service.
By using our Services to provide data to us, you agree to grant us an irrevocable, royalty-free, sub-licensable, transferable, perpetual license to use, copy, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute these data for any purpose on or in connection with the Service, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works. We may share this information with other third parties who assist us in providing the Service. In such circumstances, any data used will be anonymous and will not identify you as the source unless we receive your permission to do so. If you choose to remove your data, this license will expire, provided that you acknowledge (a) we may retain archived copies and (b) we are required to maintain records that are relevant to demonstrating our compliance with the Regulations for no less than five years from the date on which the records were created.
For the avoidance of doubt, Funding Options does not hold or in any way handle any client monies whatsoever.
If you want to make a complaint you can email complaints@fundingoptions.com with brief details of your complaint and your reference. We will acknowledge your complaint within one Business Day, then investigate and send you an initial response within another three Business Days. We will aim to resolve the matter within four weeks of receiving your complaint.
If within eight weeks after receiving a complaint we are still not able to resolve the matter, we will send you a final response. If you don’t agree with our final response you may be entitled to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, who can be contacted by telephone on 0800 023 4567 or at www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk. You may also have the right to make a complaint directly to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
We reserve the right to vary these terms and conditions at any time, including assigning these terms.
We may send any notices to you by email to the address provided when you signed up to the Service, or otherwise as updated by you through the Service. You agree that we may send you notices via email or via alerts within the service.
If any provision of these terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain enforceable. Failure to exercise or enforce rights or provisions shall not constitute a waiver.
Your use of the Service is subject to English law, and we both agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the English courts to settle any dispute that might arise.
the name of the small or medium sized business;
the postal address, email address and telephone number of the business;
the amount of finance requested by the business (other than in relation to a request for a credit card account, unless the business has requested a credit card account with a specified limit);
the type of finance requested by the business (where a specific type of finance has been requested by the business);
the legal structure of the business (limited company, limited partnership, partnership sole trader, or other);
the period in years and months for which the business has been trading and receiving income;
the date by which the business requires finance or, if such date is not known, the date by which the business has requested finance.
At Funding Options Ltd, we are committed to offering our customers the highest possible standards of service. In doing so, we are pleased to support the Financial Conduct Authority (formerly Financial Services Authority) initiative ‘Treating Customers Fairly’.
Provide you with clear information about the service we offer, including any fees or charges.
Continually aim to understand your business needs, preferences and circumstances in order for us to narrow down the selection of options that may be available to you.
Source the most appropriate lender that we consider suitable for your business, and that you can afford (based on the information provided and is available to us).
We will tell you if we cannot find an option we consider suitable.
Aim to keep you fully informed in a clear and fair manner that is unambiguous and not misleading.
Encourage you to ask questions, if there’s something that you do not understand.
Work hard to ensure that service and risk information remains clear and prominent at all times.
Provide you with details of our formal complaints procedure should you be dissatisfied with our service.
Tell us as much as possible about your business income and outgoings, to enable us to properly assess how much your business can afford.
Let us know about future changes that might affect your business’ ability to make re-payments of your credit agreement (if known).
Let us know if there is any aspect of our service, or of a product/finance solution we have discussed that you don’t understand.
Tell us if you think there are ways we can improve our service.
For feedback, please forward your comments to: support@fundingoptions.com. Or write to us at: Funding Options, 2-102, 33 Queen Street, London, EC4R 1AP
Thank you for choosing Funding Options Ltd.
Let us help you find the best financial product in the market. We will guide you through the whole process and make sure you get the best deal.
See your Funding OptionsIf you’re not completely happy with our service, we’d like to hear about it — that way, we can do something to put it right.
At Funding Options we do everything we can to make sure our customers get the best possible service. However, sometimes, we don’t get things right first time. When that happens, we always encourage you to tell us about your complaint, so that we can put matters right.
Make it easy for you to tell us about your complaint.
Give your complaint the attention it deserves.
Resolve your complaint fairly without delay.
Make sure you are satisfied with how your complaint was resolved.
Call us on 0333 344 1015. We are available from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday (please note that we are closed on all UK public and bank holidays).
Email us at support@fundingoptions.com
Write to: The Complaints Department, Funding Options Ltd, 2-102, 33 Queen Street, London, EC4R 1AP.
We'll do all we can to resolve your complaint within three working days. If we can't do this, we'll write to you within five working days to tell you what we've done to resolve the problem, or acknowledge your complaint and let you know when you can expect a full response. We will contact you regularly until your complaint has been resolved.
If we haven't issued our response within eight weeks from the date you first raised your complaint, or if you're dissatisfied with our response, you can ask the Financial Ombudsman Service for an independent review.
Financial Ombudsman Service Exchange Tower London E14 9SR
Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Let us help you find the best financial product in the market. We will guide you through the whole process and make sure you get the best deal.
See your Funding OptionsWe're offering £200 in vouchers to our customers when they refer another business that's successfully funded through us. Please read the following terms and conditions of our customer referral scheme:
We will give you vouchers worth £200 for every business you refer to us that
successfully obtains funding via Funding Options
This offer is only available to existing or previous customers within the Funding Options Limited database
Please note that the customer referral reward is only available for referred businesses who have not previously been in direct contact with Funding Options
The referred business must tell us that they have been referred before their facility has been arranged. In doing so, we will take this as acceptance of the terms and conditions of this customer referral scheme
We cannot guarantee that all referred businesses will obtain funding through an introduction to a lender
There is no limit to the number of businesses you can refer to us — for each that is
successfully funded through Funding Options, we'll give you vouchers worth £200 if the funding has been approved with 6 months of the referral
The time between the referral making contact with us to a successful provision of finance can take several weeks, therefore it may take a number of weeks before you receive your reward
We will contact you once you are eligible to receive the referral reward
Please note, for data security reasons if you contact us about the status of a referral, we will be unable to give you any confidential information, such as the amount of funding requested
For questions or comments please contact support@fundingoptions.com
Let us help you find the best financial product in the market. We will guide you through the whole process and make sure you get the best deal.
See your Funding Options1st August 2018
The purpose of this document is to explain what we do and how we’ll work with you. This covers our services, how we get paid, how we process your data, and what to do if you’d like to make a complaint. It’s important that you read and understand this document.
The term ‘Funding Options’ or ‘us’ refers to the owner of the service. Funding Options Limited (07739337). The term ‘you’ or ‘your’ refers to the user of the service.
We are Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Reference Number: 727867.
At Funding Options Ltd, we help businesses access finance from a wide range of lenders that are suitable for your requirements (based on the information you disclose to us). We will provide you with information about the finance and the provider to ensure you understand the conditions of any offer before you decide to proceed.
You will not receive advice or a recommendation from us. We may ask some questions to narrow down the selection of products/options that may be available to you. You will then need to make your own choice about how to proceed.
For the avoidance of doubt, Funding Options Ltd is not a lender; we are a Credit Broker and the purpose of our service is to introduce you to suitable business lenders.
We will make reasonable efforts to provide support for the service, by phone on 0333 344 1015 (9:00 – 5:30, Monday to Friday) and by email on support@fundingoptions.com. However, no guarantee is made as to the availability or response time of the Service, and we have the right to withdraw access at any time.
If, for any reason, you wish to make a complaint about our service, you can do this by writing to our Complaints Manager at Funding Options Ltd, 2-102, 33 Queen Street, London, EC4R 1AP or by telephoning us on 0333 344 1015 where we will try to resolve your concern at the earliest time possible.
We will not charge you any fee for our service as we receive payment directly from the lender(s) based upon successful provision of finance. If you would like to know how much we will be paid by the lender, we will disclose this information to you on request.
Should you have any questions relating to the above, please feel free to contact us on 0333 344 1015.
When we provide services to you we will need to gather information about your personal circumstances. The information you provide to us will be subject to the Data Protection Act 1998, as amended or replaced by the Data Protection Act 2018, incorporating the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 216/679 (“GDPR”).
Please see our Privacy Policy for full details about:
The information we collect;
Disclosure of your information;
Processing of personal data not provided to us by you;
Use of Personal Information;
Where and how we store your personal data, and
Your rights.
The information provided may also contain sensitive personal data for the purposes of the Data Protection Act, being information as to your physical or mental health or condition; the committing or alleged committing of any offence by you; any proceedings for an offence committed or alleged to have been committed by you, including the outcome or sentence in such proceedings; your political opinions; religious or similar beliefs; sexual life; or your membership of a Trade Union.
If at any time you wish us or any company associated with us to cease processing your personal data or sensitive personal data, or contacting you for marketing purposes, please let us know. See below:
You can telephone the Data Protection Officer on 0333 344 1015,
Write to us at Funding Options Ltd, 2-102, 33 Queen Street, London, EC4R 1AP
You may be assured that we and any company associated with us will treat all personal data and sensitive personal data as confidential and will not process it other than for a legitimate purpose. Steps will be taken to ensure that the information is accurate, kept up to date and not kept for longer than is necessary. Measures will also be taken to safeguard against unauthorised or unlawful processing and accidental loss or destruction or damage to the data.
We take your continuing use of our service as your consent to our terms of business as outlined in this document and as available at www.fundingoptions.com/terms. If you do not consent to these terms please notify us immediately and we will stop providing our services. For your own benefit and protection you should read these terms carefully. If you do not understand any point please ask for further information.
Let us help you find the best financial product in the market. We will guide you through the whole process and make sure you get the best deal.
See your Funding Options30th July 2021
1. Introduction
Funding Options Limited (“we”, “us”, “our”, “Funding Options”) take data protection very seriously and we are committed to taking care of your business data and any data that may be used to identify individuals’ personal data in the course of operating the Funding Options service. This Privacy Policy, along with our Cookie Policy sets out the basis on which we will collect, process, store and disclose personal data as a controller. It includes how we process data in relation to our staff, applicants, customers, suppliers, partners (introducers and lenders), business contacts and visitors of our site. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.
By using our Services, you agree to grant us a royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, license to use your personal data for the purposes and on the basis set out in this Privacy Policy.
This policy applies to Funding Options Limited.
If you have any comments in relation to this privacy policy, please email them to support@fundingoptions.com.
Here are the details that the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regards to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, known as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) says we have to give you as a 'data controller':
2. Who We Are
Funding Options Limited.
Our site address is https://www.fundingoptions.com/
Our company is Funding Options Limited, registered in England with registration number 7739337 and registered address at Funding Options, 2-102, 33 Queen Street, London, EC4R 1AP
We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office ref (ICO): Z2992318
We are authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA): 727867
3. What information we collect
We collect and process the following data about you:
Identity data
, including name, username or similar identifier.
Contact data
, including email address, postal address, residential address and telephone numbers.
Financial and business data
, including financial requirements (e.g. how much our customers would like to borrow), business information, bank statements, filed accounts, VAT returns, bank account information, file and payment details; in case of sole traders – other personal financial data relevant to business finance application, such as value of personal pension, value of property equity, county court judgements (personal and business), credit ratings (personal and business).
Transaction data
, including details about payments to and from you and other details of products / services you have purchased from us or products / services we have purchased from you.
Profile data
, including your username and password, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
Usage data
, including information about how you use our website and products and services that you purchase from us
Marketing and communication data
, including your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.
To keep your personal information up-to-date, please advise us of any changes by e-mail to support@fundingoptions.com, and as soon as possible after any change in your name, residential address, telephone number, e-mail address and any other such important details.
We also collect, use and share Aggregated data such as statistical or demographic data. Aggregated data could be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data will not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature.
We do not generally collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data).
Under GDPR we will ensure that your personal data is processed lawfully, fairly, and transparently, without adversely affecting your rights. We will only process your personal data if at least one of the following bases applies:
you have given consent to the processing of your personal data for one or more specific purposes;
processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or in order to take steps at the request of you prior to entering into a contract;
processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject;
processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of you or of another natural person;
processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller; and/or
processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us or by a third party such as our credit card payment processing, except where such interests are overridden by the fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal data.
We use different methods to collect data from and about you, including:
Direct interactions when you make enquires or we purchase your products or services, you create an account on our site, request marketing to be sent to you, enter a promotion or survey, or give us feedback or contact us.
Third parties or publicly available sources, including existing or prospective providers of finance to you (in the course of considering whether to make an application or making an application to them), analytics providers such as Google, advertising networks, search information providers,] and identity and contact data from publicly available sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register based inside the EU.
4. Cookies
We use various cookies to distinguish users and improve our site. For further details please see our Cookie Policy found at https://www.fundingoptions.com/terms/cookie-policy/.
5. How we use what we collect
We use information about you to:
Help make decisions about credit and credit related services
Provide partner and event information
Retargeting purposes
Improve our service
Trade debtors, recover debt, prevent fraud, and to manage your accounts
Prevent fraud and money laundering
Present our site content effectively to you.
Provide information and products and services that you request, or (with soft opt-in following your purchase, your consent or if we have another lawful basis, such as legitimate interest) which we think may interest you.
Carry out our contracts with you.
Tell you our charges.
If you are a sole trader, you acknowledge that credit reference agencies link together the records of you and anyone that you have advised is a financial associate (joint credit account). Links between financial associates will remain on your, and their, credit reference files until such time as you or your partner successfully files for a disassociation with the credit reference agencies. When assessing the affordability of your repayments, we may take into account information about your financial associates in your credit reference.
If you are already our customer, we will only contact you electronically about things similar to what was previously provided to or of interest to you and you will be given an opportunity to opt-out and unsubscribe from further communications.
Please note: We don't identify individuals to our advertisers, but we do give them aggregate information to help them reach their target audience, and we may use information we have collected to display advertisements to that audience.
If you don’t want us to use your personal data for any of the reasons set out in this section, you can let us know at any time by contacting us at support@fundingoptions.com, and we will delete your data from our systems. However, you acknowledge this may limit our ability to provide our products and services to you.
In some cases, the collection of personal data may be a statutory or contractual requirement, and we will be limited in the products and services we can provide you if you don’t provide your personal data in these cases. 6. Where we store your data
We store your personal data on our own service databases as well as selected third party providers, including but not limited to; AWS, Salesforce, ActiveCampaign and Hubspot servers. This is used by the Funding Options service which sends customers emails and tracks the status of applications. We may transfer your collected data outside the European Economic Area (EEA). It may be processed outside the EEA as may be necessary to provide our products and services to you, to provide our service to you, or if we have your consent.
We will only transfer your data to countries that are deemed to have an adequate level of protection of personal data by the European commission; or we may use specific contractual provisions approved by or which comply with the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe; or we may transfer data to US based providers, such as Hubspot, that are part of the Privacy Shield; or data may be transferred to other countries, but remain accessible within our organisation only, by employees including but not limited to contractors who are obliged to adhere to Funding Options policies and procedures.
By giving us your personal data, you agree to this arrangement. We will do what we reasonably can to keep your data secure.
If we give, or you create a password, you must keep it confidential. Please don't share it. Although we try to provide protection, we cannot guarantee complete security for your data, and you take the risk that any sending of that data turns out to be not secure despite our efforts.
We only keep your personal data for as long as we need to in order to use it as described above in section 5, and/or for as long as we have your permission to keep it. Our general retention period is 7 years but your data may be kept for shorter or longer periods of time, in accordance with our internal Data Retention Policy and applicable legislation. In any event, we will conduct regular reviews to ascertain whether we need to keep your personal data. Your personal data will be deleted if we no longer need it.
7. Disclosing your information
We are allowed to disclose your information in the following cases:
If we want to sell our business, we can disclose it to the potential buyer.
We can disclose it if we have a legal obligation to do so, or in order to protect other
people's property, safety or rights.
We can exchange information with others to protect against fraud or credit risks.
We will also check your details with a fraud prevention agency or agencies and if you give false or inaccurate information and we identify fraud, this will be recorded and may be shared by those agencies with other organisations and us, so that we and other organisations, including law enforcement agencies and debt collection agencies may access, use and search these records as described in section 5.
With your permission we will share your personal data with suitable lenders for the purpose of loan underwriting.
We also contract with third parties to supply our products or services to you on our behalf. These may include payment processing, search engine facilities, web hosting, advertising and marketing. In some cases, the third parties may require access to some or all of your data. These are some of the third parties that have access to your information:
AWS, Salesforce, Hubspot - storage of all data, including identity, contact, financial and business data, transactional data, technical data, profile data and usage data
Accounting companies, as may be required for our compliance with statutory obligations and financial calculations - identity, contact, financial and business data, and transactional data
IT services providers, as may be necessary for the provision of their services to us - identity data, contact data, financial and business data, transaction data, technical data, profile data, usage data and/or marketing and communications data
Payment processing companies, as may be necessary for the provision of their services - identity data, contact data, financial and business data and transaction data
Banks, as may be necessary for the provision of their services to us - identity data, contact data, financial and business data and transaction data
Insurance companies, as may be necessary for the provision of their services to us - identity data, contact data, financial and business data and transaction data
Debt collection agencies, as may be necessary for the provision of their services to us - identity data, contact data, financial and business data and transaction data
Marketing and advertising services providers, as may be necessary for the provision of their services to us - identity data, contact data and transaction data
Warehouse services providers, as may be necessary for the provision of their services to us - identity data, contact data and transaction data
Telecommunication services providers, as may be necessary for the provision of their services to us - identity data, contact data, financial and business data, transaction data, technical data, profile data and usage data
Other services providers, including law firms and documents services - identity data, contact data, financial and business data and/or transaction data as may be required for the provision of the relevant services
FCA or governmental authorities, as may be necessary in order for us to comply with statutory requirements and official requests - identity data, contact data, financial and business data, transaction data, technical data, profile data, usage data, marketing and communication data.
Where any of your data is required for such a purpose, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data will be handled safely, securely, and in accordance with your rights, our obligations, and the obligations of the third party under GDPR and the law.
8. Applicants
In completing our job application form, submitting your CV or applying by LinkedIn or employment events, you will give us personal information about yourself. We will use your personal data only for the purpose of assessing your suitability for employment by us and in any subsequent interviewing process. Copies of the information you submit, and any further correspondence will be retained in order to progress your job application and as a record of our employment and fair access processes. Your application will only be processed by our People team. The information you provide to us will be stored and processed for internal recruitment purposes only. We may store and record any telephone calls you have with staff for record keeping and quality control purposes. We will retain your information in the event of an unsuccessful application for a period of 12 months, in line with GDPR. After this period the data will be anonymised. 9. Your rights
You can ask us not to use your data for marketing. You can do this by ticking the relevant boxes on our forms, clicking the unsubscribe link contained in our marketing communications or by contacting us at any time at support@fundingoptions.com.
Under the GDPR, you also have the right to:
request access to, deletion of or correction of, your personal data held by us at no cost to you;
request that your personal data be transferred to another person (data portability);
be informed of what data processing is taking place;
restrict processing;
to object to processing of your personal data; and
complain to a supervisory authority.
You also have rights with respect to automated decision-making and profiling.
To enforce any of the foregoing rights or if you have any other questions about our site or this Privacy Policy, please contact us at support@fundingoptions.com.
10. Links to other sites
Please note that our terms and conditions and our policies will not apply to other websites that you get to via a link from our site. We have no control over how your data is collected, stored or used by other websites and we advise you to check the privacy policies of any such websites before providing any data to them.
11. Changes
This Policy was last updated on 18 February 2020. If we change our Privacy Policy, we will post the changes on this page.
12. Automated Decision-Making and Profiling
We do not undertake any automated decision-making, including profiling.
13. Notice to Staff
All staff have an obligation to read and adhere to all relevant Funding Options Policies. During the onboarding process e-learning will be assigned and completion is a requirement. Personal information held about staff will be stored securely and will only be accessible by authorised departments. All Funding Options hardware and software is the property of Funding Options. When leaving employment from Funding Options all staff are required to return all hardware, including access cards. If staff use the facilities for personal use, they understand that Funding Options has the right to access the hardware and software at any time without notice. If communications are of a personal nature staff should clearly subject the content as personal. However, Funding Options will still have the right to access these if needed.
Let us help you find the best financial product in the market. We will guide you through the whole process and make sure you get the best deal.
See your Funding Options22nd May 2018
This policy (“Cookie Policy”) forms part of the Funding Options Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”). Capitalised terms not otherwise defined in this Cookie Policy have the meaning given to them in the Privacy Policy.
Cookies are small pieces of data stored on your browser, computer or other device when you visit websites, including our website (“our Website”). Cookies usually contain anonymous information which is accessible by the website which set it, on each later visit to that website or sometimes when you visit other websites.
Please note that we can also collect information about your usage of our Website from data contained in “log files”. Log files are not cookies; they do not contain any personal data; and they are not used to identify your personal use of our Website. When you request any web page from our Website, web servers automatically obtain your domain name and internet protocol (“IP”) address, but they reveal nothing personal about you and that data is only used to examine Website traffic in aggregate, to investigate abuse of our Website and its users, and/or to cooperate with law enforcement. Such data is not disseminated to third parties, except in aggregate.
We use cookies to store the following data:
How you use our Website
Identifiers such as your device and location
Your preferences for our Website and services
Cookies cannot harm your computer or other device.
There are four different types of cookie, which we explain here, and then we set out the cookies we uses in the table below.
Necessary cookies:
those required for the operation of our Website, which do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you have been on the internet.
Analytical/performance cookies:
these allow us to collect information about how you use our Website, such as, how you move around our Website and if you experience any errors. These cookies do not collect personal data. The information collected is anonymous and is only used to help us improve the way our Website works, understand what interests our users generally and measure how effective our advertising is. Some of the performance cookies we use are issued as part of services provided by third parties, like Google Analytics.
Functionality cookies:
these are used to provide services or to recognise you when you return to our Website. These would enable us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences and improve your visit.
Targeting cookies:
these record your visit to a certain website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. They are linked to services provided by third parties, such as "Like" and "Share" buttons, in return for recognising that you have visited the relevant website. The third party may subsequently use information about your visit to target advertising to you on other websites and present you with advertisements that you may be interested in.
Please note that configuring your computer and/or mobile browser to reject ‘necessary’, ‘performance’ or ‘functional’ cookies may severely impact your experience on our Website and some parts of our Website will not function at all.
All browsers provide tools that allow you to control how you handle cookies: accept, reject or delete them. These settings are normally accessed via the ‘settings’, 'preferences' or 'options' menu of the browser you are using, but you could also look for a ‘help’ function or contact the browser provider.
You should check the privacy policy any third party service(s) you may use that set Targeting cookies on your browser or device. You may also be able to use tools provided by those third parties (and the third parties mentioned in the table above) to prevent their Targeting cookies being set.
Let us help you find the best financial product in the market. We will guide you through the whole process and make sure you get the best deal.
See your Funding Options1. Our Philosophy and Ambitions
Our stance
Funding Options believes in a net-zero world and the immediate need to mitigate climate change. Through initiatives such as the United Nations’ Paris Agreement and the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), the financial services sector will need to be at the forefront of change to enable the world to meet its carbon reduction targets. In addition to this, SMEs will play a vital role in enabling the UK to meet its own carbon reduction targets.
Sustainability will impact the SME lending industry
Sustainability has been at the forefront of financial services for many years now, and it is only a natural progression for the SME alternative finance industry to adopt this new ethos. The industry plays a pivotal role in supporting UK SMEs access finance to grow, develop and prosper. And by extension, should play a key role in enabling UK SMEs to assist driving the wider economy to a net-zero world.
Funding Options has a pivotal role in enabling SMEs to decarbonise
Operating at the intersection of demand and supply for business finance in the UK, Funding Options has the opportunity to support our customers to reach their net-zero goals and drive a more sustainable economy. We welcome this challenge and are enthused to utilise our strengths to assist the UK create a more sustainable economy.
2. Introduction to the Objectives of the Policy
This policy sets out Funding Options’ commitments to supporting SMEs and our partners to decarbonise the UK economy through sustainable finance. This policy outlines how Funding Options will look to achieve this through our strategy, governance structure, approach to climate opportunities and the targets we have set ourselves.
3. Commitments and Standards
Funding Options’ is committed to assisting SMEs play their part to reach the UK’s net-zero goals for 2050. In line with the United Nations’ Paris Agreement and the UK Government’s ten point plan for a green industrial revolution, Funding Options is striving to enable SMEs to decarbonise the UK economy and build businesses that green the real economy.
Our sustainability policy is underpinned by the following framework.
Strategy
Risk Management
Metrics and Targets
Governance
Strategy
Funding Options’ climate strategy and purpose is to enable SMEs to participate in realising climate mitigation activities and measures and to therefore, build greater resilience against climate related risk in the UK economy. It is underpinned by the below two elements:
Fund Green
To enable UK SMEs to fund green assets, green projects, green operations and green businesses. Data capture and insights and will be a key priority to ensure this takes place.
Lend Green
To enable any UK SME to be able to identify, engage with and where possible receive business funding from a green lender.
Definitions
Green Assets: A renewable, low/zero carbon asset.
Green Project: A renewable, low/zero carbon project.
Green Operation: A renewable, low/zero carbon operation.
Green Business: A business that has renewable, low/zero carbon or sustainable business activities, products or services.
Green Lender: Meets at least one of the following criteria:
1. A product specifically tailored to the purchase or leasing of green assets or green businesses.
2. A proposition developed to support green businesses/
3. An appetite to fund businesses at a different pricing rate who have renewable, low/zero carbon or sustainable business activities, products or services.
4. A sustainability, ESG or green policy.
Risk Management
Operational level
Funding Options’ recognises our own business activities can produce greenhouse gases (GHG) and consequently contribute to climate change. Therefore, Funding Options will identify, assess and manage our Scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions on an annual basis commencing in Q4 2021.
Customer level
Funding Options recognises the opportunity to assist our customers manage their climate related risks. These risks are specifically related to their transition risks (such as policy and legal, technology, market and reputational risks). And we will be enabling this by providing our customers easier access to funding so that they can decarbonise their own products, services and operations.
Metrics and Targets
Measure our Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions in Q4 2021.
A target to engage with the SME lending market more often regarding climate change.
Through a combination of educational content, webinars, blogs and thought leadership pieces we will continue to educate Funding Options customers on the importance of sustainability becoming net-zero.
Conduct staff awareness raising and training to educate Funding Options employees on the importance of sustainability and our organisation becoming net-zero.
Advocacy on policy. (Advocacy on policy could be for example, setting up a meeting with the BBB in the next 12 months to discuss the importance of greater government engagement with the alternative finance industry to drive climate reduction with SMEs.)
Governance Structure
The below sets out the governance structure that Funding Options will utilise to ensure accountability and optimum information flow across the business. As with all of our business operations, the outcomes of our customers is the most important consideration. This governance structure will ensure all internal stakeholders have the required level of oversight to ensure the execution of our sustainability policy.
CEO climate related roles & responsibilities
The CEO has executive oversight of Funding Options’ sustainability strategy and mandate. They are responsible for ensuring all divisions within the firm are adhering to this policy.
Departmental climate related roles & responsibilities
1. Risk and Compliance
The Risk and Compliance team is In charge of implementing the sustainability policy into our risk department. Key responsibilities include (but are not limited to) updating the policy as necessary changes, due to internal or external considerations and ensuring Funding Options remains compliant with internal and external regulations.
2. Sales and Commercial
The Sales and Commercial teams are responsible for ensuring Funding Options meets the commercial requirements of the sustainability policy. This includes (but is not limited to) ensuring we have the required level of engagement and growth of the green lender panel, assisting green businesses and those with green finance requirements as well as broader strategic opportunities relating to greening the UK economy.
3. Engineering, Product, Design & Data (EPDD)
The Engineering, Product, Design & Data (EPDD) team is responsible for ensuring Funding Options meets the technical requirements of the sustainability policy. This includes (but is not limited to) ensuring data capture and quality is of the necessary standard and that the wider systems Funding Options use are functioning appropriately to assist businesses with their sustainable finance needs.
4. Marketing
Marketing is responsible for having a clear external position on Funding Options' ESG policy and impact on society. Key responsibilities include communicating Funding Option's sustainability ambitions in relation to achieving net-zero and communicating key data points that demonstrate impact and progress towards this goal.
5. People
The People team is responsible for ensuring Funding Options’ staff are aware and cognisant of the impact the organisation has on carbon emissions and climate change. They are responsible for ensuring the organisation has measures and initiatives in place to assist staff in reducing their own carbon emissions.
Let us help you find the best financial product in the market. We will guide you through the whole process and make sure you get the best deal.
See your Funding Options