Close Brothers Invoice Finance is a credible choice for established B2B businesses turning over £500,000 or more, but it is not a self-serve facility and it is not the cheapest option on the market. Pricing is bespoke, onboarding runs through a relationship manager, and the strongest fit is a company that wants a long-term funding partner rather than a quick fix.
The trade-off is straightforward. You get a well-capitalised, FCA-regulated parent group, an experienced invoice finance team, and access to wider asset-based lending if you grow into it. In return you accept opaque headline pricing, a 12-month rolling contract, and the friction of a traditional underwriting process.
This review walks through how the facility works, what it really costs, who qualifies, how onboarding feels in practice, and where Close Brothers sits against Bibby, Aldermore and Skipton.
Close Brothers Invoice Finance at a Glance
Our Verdict
Close Brothers Invoice Finance suits established B2B businesses that want a relationship-led lender with deep pockets and the option to layer in asset-based lending later. Pricing is competitive once negotiated, but you will not see a rate sheet upfront and the facility is built around a 12-month rolling contract.
It is a sensible shortlist entry for companies with clean ledgers and turnover well above the £500,000 floor. It is the wrong tool for a sole trader, a micro business, or anyone who needs funding inside a week.
Best For
- Established B2B SMEs with £500,000+ turnover and a spread of debtors
- Manufacturers, wholesalers, recruiters and construction firms with predictable invoicing cycles
- Businesses that may want to graduate into asset-based lending against stock, plant or property
- Owners who value a named relationship manager over an app-driven experience
Not Ideal For
- Pre-revenue businesses or those under £500,000 turnover
- Companies with a single dominant customer and severe debtor concentration
- Owners who want one-off spot factoring on a single invoice
- Businesses needing same-day funding without a full underwriting process
Key Facts
- Minimum turnover: £500,000 per year
- Advance rate: up to 90% of approved invoice value
- Products: invoice discounting, factoring, asset-based lending, bad debt protection, Liquidity Plus
- Pricing: bespoke, not published. Industry benchmarks: service fee 0.75–2.5%, discount margin 1–3% over base
- Contract: typically 12-month rolling with 30–90 day notice
- Regulation: parent Close Brothers Limited authorised by the PRA and regulated by the FCA and PRA, FRN 195626. Note that B2B invoice finance itself is largely outside FCA scope
- Industry membership: UK Finance Invoice Finance and Asset-Based Lending section, the body that replaced ABFA
What Is Close Brothers Invoice Finance?
Close Brothers Invoice Finance is the receivables funding arm of Close Brothers, a FTSE-listed merchant banking group. It releases cash tied up in unpaid B2B invoices, usually at up to 90% of invoice value, with the balance paid when the customer settles.
The proposition is broader than a single product. The same team can move a client between invoice discounting, factoring, bad debt protection and full asset-based lending as the business changes shape.
How Close Brothers Invoice Finance Works
You raise an invoice in the normal way. Close Brothers advances a pre-agreed percentage, typically up to 90%, into your account within a working day. When your customer pays, the remaining balance is released to you, less the service fee and the discount charge for the days the cash was outstanding.
The facility is normally a whole-turnover arrangement. That means most or all of your sales ledger sits inside the facility, not a single invoice you cherry-pick.
Factoring vs Invoice Discounting
Close Brothers offers both. The distinction matters more than people realise.
Factoring is disclosed. Close Brothers takes over credit control, chases your customers directly, and your debtors know an invoice finance provider is involved. It saves the cost of an in-house credit controller, which is genuinely useful for a £1m turnover firm running on three people in the office.
Invoice discounting is confidential. You keep credit control, your customers pay into a trust account branded as your business, and the funding line stays invisible to them. It demands stronger internal finance discipline, because Close Brothers is relying on your reporting rather than its own ledger work.
Whole Ledger vs Selective Finance
Close Brothers structures most facilities as whole-ledger arrangements. The lender funds against the entire approved sales ledger, which gives a smoother, more predictable funding line and usually a sharper price.
Selective or single-invoice finance is not a confirmed product line at Close Brothers. If you need to fund one invoice from one customer and walk away, look at specialist spot factoring providers rather than assume Close Brothers will accommodate it.
Close Brothers Invoice Finance Rates and Fees
Close Brothers does not publish a public rate card for invoice finance. Pricing is quoted after a relationship manager has reviewed your turnover, ledger profile, sector and debtor spread. That is normal in this part of the market, but it means a direct comparison with rivals requires asking three or four lenders for written terms.
Service Charge and Discount Rate
Invoice finance pricing is two-part. Treat them as separate lines on a P&L.
The service charge is a percentage of gross turnover funded through the facility. It pays for ledger management, the platform, credit control if you are factoring, and the operational overhead. Across the UK market this typically sits between 0.75% and 2.5% of turnover, with factoring at the higher end because credit control is included.
The discount charge is the cost of the cash advanced. It is quoted as a margin over a base rate, usually Bank of England base or SONIA, and accrues only on funds actually drawn. Industry norms are 1–3% over base. With base rate at recent levels, a £200,000 average drawn balance can comfortably cost £900–£1,200 a month in discount alone.
Additional Fees and Charges
Expect line items beyond the headline two. Standard ones in this market include an arrangement fee at the start of the contract, a minimum annual fee floor that bites if your turnover dips, audit and survey fees, refactoring fees if an invoice goes badly overdue, and a termination fee if you exit before the notice period.
None of these are unusual. The point is to ask for the full schedule in writing and price the facility on its all-in cost, not the headline service charge.
What Affects Your Rate
- Annual turnover: larger ledgers attract sharper pricing
- Debtor concentration: a few large customers can either reduce risk or raise it, depending on their credit rating
- Sector: construction and recruitment carry different risk weightings to wholesale or print
- Trading history and accounts quality: filed audited accounts strengthen your position
- Whether you take factoring or discounting: discounting is usually cheaper on the service charge but demands stronger internal credit control
- Whether you bolt on bad debt protection
Close Brothers Invoice Finance Eligibility
Who Can Apply
UK-incorporated B2B businesses with at least £500,000 in annual turnover and a sales ledger of business customers paying on credit terms. Limited companies, LLPs and established partnerships are all in scope. Sole traders selling to consumers are not.
Close Brothers also expects a working finance function. That can be a part-time bookkeeper for a smaller facility or a credit controller and management accountant for larger ones, but a chaotic ledger is a hard sell.
Minimum Turnover, Debtor Profile and Concentration Limits
The £500,000 turnover floor is the gate. Below that, the economics rarely work for either side.
Debtor concentration is the quieter test. If one customer accounts for, say, 60% of your sales, Close Brothers will look hard at that customer’s credit standing and may cap or exclude their invoices from the funded pool. The principle is simple: if a single buyer’s failure could collapse your business, the lender will not fund as if it could not.
Most lenders, Close Brothers included, prefer no single debtor above 25–35% of the funded ledger as a working rule of thumb, with bespoke exceptions when the debtor is a blue-chip name.
Sectors Accepted and Excluded
Funded sectors include construction, engineering, food and drink, manufacturing, print and packaging, recruitment, retail (B2B), services, technology, transport and wholesale or distribution.
Sectors that struggle anywhere in invoice finance include pure consumer-facing retail, businesses billing on stage payments without clean milestones, and trades where invoices are contingent on long warranty or retention periods. Close Brothers will look at construction, but expect close attention to applications for payment, retentions and pay-when-paid clauses.
Close Brothers Invoice Finance Application Process
How to Apply
The route in is an enquiry through closebrothers.com or a broker introduction, with your company turnover, sector and ledger size. A relationship manager contacts you, usually within a working day or two, and runs a discovery call to scope the facility.
That conversation is doing real work. It decides whether factoring or discounting fits, whether bad debt protection is needed, and whether asset-based lending should be on the table now or later.
Documents and Checks Needed
- Last two years of filed accounts plus current management accounts
- An aged debtor report and aged creditor report
- A sample of recent invoices and the contracts behind them
- Bank statements for the trading account, typically the last three to six months
- Director ID and proof of address for KYC
- A breakdown of your top customers and the credit terms you offer them
Expect a survey visit, virtual or on-site, where a Close Brothers analyst examines the ledger, the invoicing workflow and the credit control process. For discounting facilities this survey is more demanding, because the lender is buying confidence in your systems.
Approval, Onboarding and First Draw
From first call to first drawdown, two to four weeks is typical for a clean application. A complex case, retentions in construction or a heavy concentration on one debtor, can stretch to six.
That is the operational reality. If your VAT bill lands in eight days and you have not started, invoice finance from Close Brothers will not save you. It is a facility you arrange ahead of need, not on the day of need.
Close Brothers Invoice Finance Facility Terms and Risk
Advance Rates and Funding Limits
Headline advance rate is up to 90% of approved invoice value. The word “approved” carries weight. Invoices outside agreed terms, to excluded debtors, or above concentration caps may attract a lower advance or none at all.
Total facility limits scale with your ledger. There is no published ceiling for invoice finance specifically, and Close Brothers funds well into the multi-millions through its asset-based lending team.
Bad Debt Protection and Recourse Options
Bad debt protection is offered as a separate product. With it in place, if an approved debtor becomes insolvent or defaults under the cover terms, Close Brothers absorbs the loss rather than clawing the advance back from you. It costs more, often a meaningful uplift on the service charge, but it converts a recourse facility into something closer to non-recourse.
Without bad debt protection, the facility is recourse. If your customer fails to pay within the agreed period, typically 90 to 120 days from invoice date, Close Brothers can require you to refund the advance and chase the debt yourself.
The judgement call is honest: bad debt protection is worth its price for a business with one or two large customers it could not afford to lose, and harder to justify for a well-spread ledger of small accounts.
Contract Length and Exit Costs
Contracts are typically 12-month rolling, with notice periods of 30 to 90 days depending on facility size. Exiting mid-term, or inside the notice window, usually triggers a termination fee equivalent to a portion of the remaining minimum service charge.
Read the termination clause before you sign. The cost of leaving early can wipe out the saving from switching to a cheaper provider, and brokers know this clause is where surprises live.
Close Brothers Invoice Finance Customer Reviews
What Customers Like
The recurring positives in published reviews and broker feedback are the relationship manager model, the willingness to flex terms as a business grows, and the speed of funding once the facility is live. Owners describe being able to ring a named contact and get a useful answer the same day, which is rare in lender services.
The asset-based lending bridge is also a quiet selling point. Businesses outgrowing pure invoice finance can often expand the facility within Close Brothers rather than refinance from scratch.
Common Complaints
The recurring negatives cluster around three things. Pricing is opaque until you are deep in the process, which makes early comparison hard. Onboarding is slower than fintech-led rivals. And exit terms have caught some businesses off guard, particularly the minimum annual fee floor when turnover dipped.
Trustpilot at the parent Close Brothers Group level sits at 3.5 out of 5, an “Average” score. That includes motor finance and other businesses, so it is not a clean read on the invoice finance team specifically, but it is the publicly visible signal a prospect will see.
Close Brothers Support and Regulation
Customer Support
Each facility has a named relationship manager and a client services team handling day-to-day operations. For factoring clients, the credit control team is a real part of the offering and will be on the phone to your customers chasing payment.
Service is phone and email-led rather than chat-bot driven. That is in keeping with Close Brothers’ positioning as a relationship lender, and most of the time it is a strength.
Regulatory Status and Complaints
Close Brothers Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the FCA and PRA under FRN 195626. That is the parent banking entity.
Invoice finance to B2B businesses, however, is largely outside FCA conduct rules, because the borrower is a commercial entity rather than a consumer. State this plainly: you do not have the same Financial Ombudsman Service route a consumer borrower would. The complaints framework that does apply comes from UK Finance, through its Invoice Finance and Asset-Based Lending section, which superseded ABFA. Close Brothers is a member.
It is also worth noting that Close Brothers Group raised £400m in capital in the recent past to address legacy motor finance mis-selling liabilities. That is at the group level and has not produced structural changes in the invoice finance division, but it is a fact a careful CFO will want on file.
Close Brothers vs Alternatives
Close Brothers vs Bibby Financial Services
Bibby is the larger pure-play independent in UK invoice finance and accepts smaller businesses, with facilities starting from lower turnover thresholds than Close Brothers. Bibby’s selective and construction-specific products are well-developed.
Close Brothers wins on bank-grade balance sheet strength and the ability to extend into wider asset-based lending under one roof. If you expect to need stock or plant funding within two years, Close Brothers is the more durable choice. If you are a £400,000 turnover business that needs funding now, Bibby is more likely to take the call.
Close Brothers vs Aldermore Invoice Finance
Aldermore is a challenger bank with a digital-leaning invoice finance proposition. Pricing is competitive, the platform is more modern, and decisions can be quicker on smaller facilities.
Close Brothers offers more depth on complex ledgers, retentions, and the migration path to ABL. For a manufacturer with messy stage payments and a £3m ledger, Close Brothers is usually the safer fit. For a clean services business at £750,000 turnover, Aldermore is worth quoting alongside.
Close Brothers vs Skipton Business Finance
Skipton is a smaller, more service-led invoice finance provider with a strong reputation for personal contact and flexibility on smaller facilities. It positions itself well for owner-managed businesses that find big-bank processes slow.
Close Brothers has a deeper product set, particularly around bad debt protection and ABL. Skipton tends to win on warmth and on smaller-ticket flexibility. The honest test is to ask both for written terms on the same brief and read the schedule in full.
Final Verdict: Is Close Brothers Invoice Finance Worth It?
Yes, for the right business. If you are an established B2B firm above £500,000 turnover, with a reasonably spread ledger and a working finance function, Close Brothers is a credible top-three choice. The relationship-led model, the bridge into asset-based lending, and the strength of the parent balance sheet are real advantages.
It is not the right answer if you are below the turnover floor, if you need spot funding on a single invoice, or if you are unwilling to put time into a proper underwriting process. And because pricing is bespoke, you should not sign a Close Brothers facility without a written quote from at least one other lender beside it.
Treat the application as a procurement exercise, not a sales conversation. Ask for the full fee schedule, the termination clause, the minimum annual fee floor, and the concentration caps in writing. With those four documents in front of you, the decision becomes easy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the minimum turnover to qualify for Close Brothers invoice finance?
Close Brothers requires a minimum annual turnover of £500,000. Below that, the economics of the facility rarely work for either side, and you are better served by a provider that specialises in smaller-ticket invoice finance such as Bibby, Skipton or a fintech alternative.
Does Close Brothers offer selective or spot invoice finance?
Selective or single-invoice finance is not a confirmed product at Close Brothers. The standard offer is a whole-ledger facility funding most or all of your approved sales ledger. If you need to finance a single invoice and walk away, look at specialist spot factoring providers.
Is Close Brothers invoice finance regulated by the FCA?
Close Brothers Limited, the parent banking entity, is authorised by the PRA and regulated by the FCA and PRA under FRN 195626. However, invoice finance to B2B businesses is largely outside FCA conduct rules, because the borrower is a commercial entity rather than a consumer. Standards and complaints handling instead sit under UK Finance’s Invoice Finance and Asset-Based Lending section, of which Close Brothers is a member.
How long does a Close Brothers invoice finance application take?
Two to four weeks from first enquiry to first drawdown is typical for a clean application. Complex cases, particularly construction with retentions or businesses with heavy debtor concentration, can take six weeks or more. It is a facility to arrange ahead of need, not on the day of need.
What happens if a debtor does not pay under a Close Brothers facility?
On a standard recourse facility, if your customer does not pay within the agreed period, typically 90 to 120 days from invoice date, Close Brothers can require you to repay the advance and you chase the debt yourself. With bad debt protection bolted on, Close Brothers absorbs the loss when an approved debtor becomes insolvent or defaults under the cover terms. The protection costs more but converts the facility into something closer to non-recourse.