Privacy Policy
Mercantile Funded
Last updated: 1 November 2026 · Version 1.2
1. Who we are
Mercantile Funded is the trading name of Metis Mercantile Finance Limited, a commercial finance brokerage registered in England and Wales.
| Legal entity | Metis Mercantile Finance Limited |
| Company number | 16105961 |
| Registered office | Unit A, 82 James Carter Road, Mildenhall, Bury St Edmunds, IP28 7DE |
| Correspondence address | Crosse Hall Barn, Crosse Hall Fold, Chorley, Lancashire, PR6 9AD |
| ICO registration | ZC210116 |
| hi@mercantilefunded.com | |
| Telephone | 07706 627077 |
| Website | www.mercantilefunded.com |
We are the data controller for the personal information described in this policy. That means we decide why and how it is used, and we are responsible for looking after it.
We arrange commercial finance for businesses. We are not a lender and we do not lend our own money. Commercial lending to limited companies is generally not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and we are not authorised or regulated by the FCA.
2. What this policy covers
This policy explains what we do with personal information when you:
- visit www.mercantilefunded.com or submit an enquiry through it;
- complete an enquiry form in one of our adverts on Facebook or Instagram;
- speak to us by telephone, email, video call or in person about a funding requirement;
- apply, or are considered, for finance through us — whether as a borrower, a company director, a shareholder, a guarantor or a beneficial owner;
- work with us as a lender, introducer, supplier or professional adviser; or
- receive marketing from us.
It does not cover what a lender does with your information once an application has been passed to them. Each lender is a separate data controller and has its own privacy notice. We will tell you which lenders we intend to approach before we approach them.
3. The information we collect
Depending on how you deal with us, we may collect:
Identity and contact details — name, date of birth, nationality, job title, company name and role, home and business address, email address and telephone numbers, and identification documents such as a passport or driving licence.
Business and financial information — company and trading details, filed and management accounts, bank statements, card takings and merchant terminal data, VAT returns, aged debtor and creditor reports, asset and property details, existing borrowing and security, and details of the funding you are seeking and what it is for.
Credit and risk information — credit reports and scores, public register information such as county court judgments, defaults, insolvency and disqualification records, payment history, and the results of fraud prevention checks.
Correspondence and call records — emails, messages, notes of conversations and, where we tell you in advance, recordings or transcripts of calls and meetings.
Website and technical information — IP address, browser and device type, pages visited and the date and time of your visit.
We do not seek special category data (such as health information) as a matter of course. If a lender needs it — for example, medical evidence supporting a life policy taken as security — we will only pass it on with your explicit consent.
4. Where we get it from
Most of it comes from you. We may also receive information from:
- Meta Platforms (Facebook and Instagram), when you submit an enquiry form in one of our adverts. This includes the answers you give in the form and the contact details you choose to share from your profile;
- the directors, shareholders, guarantors and advisers connected to an application;
- introducers and referral partners who pass us an enquiry;
- lenders and funders on our panel;
- credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies;
- publicly available sources, including Companies House, the Land Registry, the Insolvency Register, the FCA Register and professional networking sites.
If you give us information about somebody else — a fellow director, a guarantor, an accountant — please make sure they know, and show them this policy.
5. Why we use it, and our lawful basis
| What we use it for | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Responding to your enquiry and assessing what finance may suit you | Steps taken at your request before entering a contract; our legitimate interest in running our business |
| Preparing and submitting an application to one or more lenders | Steps taken at your request before entering a contract; consent where required by the lender |
| Verifying identity and carrying out anti-money-laundering, sanctions and fraud checks | Compliance with a legal obligation; our legitimate interest in preventing fraud and financial crime |
| Carrying out credit searches | Our legitimate interest, and the lender's, in assessing creditworthiness |
| Managing the relationship, arranging drawdown and administering our fee or commission | Performance of a contract; our legitimate interests |
| Keeping records, resolving complaints and defending legal claims | Compliance with a legal obligation; our legitimate interests |
| Sending you marketing about our services | Our legitimate interests, or your consent where the law requires it |
| Improving our website, our advertising and our services | Our legitimate interests |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered whether those interests are outweighed by your rights. You can ask us for our assessment, and you can object — see section 10.
6. Credit reference and fraud prevention agencies
This section matters, so please read it carefully.
Credit reference agencies. To assess an application we may search the records held about you and your business by credit reference agencies such as Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. At the enquiry and quotation stage we, and the lenders we approach, will normally use a soft search, which is visible only to you and does not affect your credit score. A hard search, which is recorded on your file and can be seen by other lenders, is only carried out when a formal application is made — and we will tell you before that happens.
The credit reference agencies will supply both public information and shared credit performance data. They may keep a record of our search. Where we search a business record linked to a named individual, that search may also be recorded against the individual.
Each credit reference agency publishes a Credit Reference Agency Information Notice (CRAIN), which explains in full how they use personal data and what your rights are:
- Experian — experian.co.uk/crain
- Equifax — equifax.co.uk/crain
- TransUnion — transunion.co.uk/crain
Fraud prevention agencies. We and our lenders may use fraud prevention agencies, including Cifas and Synectics Solutions (National SIRA), to prevent fraud and money laundering and to verify identity. If we, a lender or a fraud prevention agency determine that you pose a fraud or money laundering risk, we may refuse to act for you, and the lender may refuse to provide the finance. A record of that decision may be retained by the fraud prevention agency and may result in other organisations refusing to provide services, financing or employment to you.
The lawful basis for this processing is our legitimate interest, and a substantial public interest, in preventing fraud and financial crime. Cifas publishes a full fraud prevention notice at cifas.org.uk/fpn, which explains the consequences and your rights, including how to make a subject access request to them directly. Your data may be transferred outside the UK in the course of these checks, protected by appropriate safeguards.
7. Who we share it with
We share personal information with:
- Lenders, funders and their agents, so that they can assess an application. We tell you which lenders we intend to approach, and we do not submit an application without your instruction;
- Credit reference and fraud prevention agencies, as described above;
- Introducers and referral partners, where they introduced you to us and only to the extent needed to administer that introduction;
- Professional advisers — accountants, solicitors, valuers, insurance brokers — where they are involved in the transaction;
- Our own service providers, including IT, email, cloud storage, telephony, meeting-recording, case-management and customer relationship management suppliers, who act on our instructions under written contract;
- Regulators, law enforcement and government bodies, where we are required or permitted by law to do so; and
- A buyer or successor, if we sell or reorganise our business.
We do not sell personal information, and we do not pass it to third parties for their own marketing.
8. Sending information outside the UK
Some of our suppliers, and some fraud prevention checks, involve transferring personal information outside the United Kingdom. Where that happens we make sure it is protected to an equivalent standard, either because the destination country has UK adequacy status or by putting in place approved contractual safeguards such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. You can ask us for details.
9. How long we keep it
We keep personal information only for as long as we need it.
| Record | Retention |
|---|---|
| Enquiries that do not proceed | 12 months from last contact |
| Completed cases and applications | 6 years from the end of the relationship or the redemption of the facility, whichever is later |
| Anti-money-laundering and identity records | 5 years from the end of the business relationship |
| Accounting and tax records | 7 years |
| Marketing preferences and suppressions | Indefinitely, so that we honour an opt-out |
Where a longer period is required by law, or a matter is subject to a complaint or legal claim, we keep the records until that is resolved. After that we delete them or make them permanently anonymous.
10. Your rights
Under the UK GDPR you have the right to:
- be informed about how we use your information — that is what this policy is for;
- access a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
- have inaccurate information corrected;
- have information erased, where we no longer have a good reason to keep it;
- restrict how we use it while a concern is investigated;
- object to processing based on our legitimate interests, and to object at any time to direct marketing;
- receive your information in a portable format, or have it transferred to another organisation, where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means;
- withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent. This does not affect anything done before you withdrew it; and
- not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing that produces a legal or similarly significant effect. We do not make such decisions. Some lenders use automated decisioning as part of their own application process; if that applies, the lender's privacy notice will say so and you can ask them to have a person review the decision.
To exercise any of these rights, email hi@mercantilefunded.com or write to us at the correspondence address in section 1. We will respond within one month. There is normally no charge. We may need to verify your identity first.
11. Marketing
We may send you information about our services by email, telephone or post where you have asked us to, where you are an existing client, or where we have a business relationship with you and the law allows it.
Every marketing email carries an unsubscribe link. You can also opt out at any time by emailing hi@mercantilefunded.com. We will always continue to send you messages that relate to a live case or a facility we have arranged, because those are not marketing.
12. Cookies, our website and our adverts
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies. Strictly necessary cookies make the site work and do not require your consent. Any analytics or performance cookies are only set where you have agreed to them, and you can change your choice at any time through your browser settings or any cookie banner shown on the site.
With your consent, our website uses the Meta Pixel, a cookie and tracking tool provided by Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd. It tells us whether a visit came from one of our Facebook or Instagram adverts and whether an enquiry was then sent, so we can see which adverts work and stop paying for ones that do not. Meta may also use this information under its own privacy policy, including to show you relevant adverts. The pixel only loads if you choose "Accept" on our cookie banner. If you choose "Reject", nothing is set. You can change your choice at any time using the "Cookie settings" link at the bottom of our website.
Our enquiry form also records how you reached our site (for example Facebook, Google or a direct visit), using the referring web address and any campaign tags in the link. This is sent with your enquiry so we know where it came from; it is not used to track you across other websites.
When you use an enquiry form in one of our Facebook or Instagram adverts, Meta Platforms processes your information under its own privacy policy, and passes the details you submit to us. You can control how Meta uses your information for advertising in your Facebook and Instagram settings.
Our website may link to other websites. We are not responsible for their content or their privacy practices.
13. Keeping information secure
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal information, including access controls, encryption in transit, multi-factor authentication on our systems, and staff confidentiality obligations. Email is not a secure medium; where documents are particularly sensitive, ask us and we will arrange a secure alternative.
If a personal data breach occurs that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will report it to the Information Commissioner's Office within 72 hours and tell you where the law requires us to.
14. Changes to this policy
We review this policy at least annually and whenever our practices change. The version number and date at the top show when it was last updated. Material changes will be notified to clients directly.
15. How to contact us, and how to complain
For any question about this policy, or to exercise your rights:
Email — hi@mercantilefunded.com
Telephone — 07706 627077
Post — Data Protection, Mercantile Funded, Crosse Hall Barn, Crosse Hall Fold, Chorley, Lancashire, PR6 9AD
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first — we would like the chance to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at any time:
Information Commissioner's Office — Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF · Telephone 0303 123 1113 · ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint