On 11 May 2026, HM Treasury (HMT) published its response to its 2025 consultations on two parts of the UK’s statutory small and medium sized enterprises (SME) finance framework: Commercial Credit Data Sharing (CCDS) and the Bank Referral Scheme (BRS).

CCDS consultation

CCDS is an initiative dating back to 2013. It requires major lenders (banks designated by HMT) to share credit information on their SMEs with credit reference agencies (CRAs) designated by HMT, in order to improve access to finance. CCDS operates under the Small and Medium Sized Business (Credit Information) Regulations 2015, made under powers in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015. Among other things the consultation proposed a standard data format to be used by all participants across industry.

In light of the responses to the consultation the Government plans to take forward the following proposals:

  • Expanding the regime to be able to designate entities other than only regulated banking institutions. Additionally, the Government will revise the criteria for designation, to ensure that the most significant providers of SME finance are always covered under the scheme.
  • Ensuring that voluntary participants’ SME customer information is shared with all designated CRAs, to improve data accuracy.
  • Ensuring that SMEs that qualify for CCDS reporting exit the scheme once they have clearly and consistently exceeded the turnover threshold, to manage the risk of companies around the £25m turnover threshold drifting in and out of the scheme.
  • Allow individual entities to qualify for CCDS reporting and be treated separately if they are part of a wider corporate group, in determining their eligibility. This is to ensure CCDS reporting is not determined by size of parent, even where a subsidiary may operate entirely independently of its parent from a funding perspective.
  • Revising the information mandated to be included within CCDS reporting and excluding categories of data that are no longer necessary (such as stocking loans). The Government will take further evidence on what categories of information to include, and the relative balance of CCDS reporting and Open Finance developments but is minded to expand the CCDS scheme to include business deposit account information given the useful picture this data can give of an SME’s overall financial health.
  • Ensuring that older SME accounts (i.e. those opened prior to the 2015 regulations coming into force) are included in the scheme, unless SMEs elect not to take part.
  • Inclusion of charities and the not-for-profit sector in CCDS scope, to better support the sector’s ability to access finance.
  • Revising the roles of the public authorities, particularly the FCA and HMT.

HMT states that delivering reforms to the CCDS framework will require amendments to both primary and secondary legislation (the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 and the Small and Medium Sized Business (Credit information) Regulations 2015). As such the Government will take forward changes when Parliamentary time allows.

The Government would also like to see progress delivered via the financial services sector in certain areas including providing a single standardised data format that is utilised by all participants in the scheme and improving credit information available to SMEs to support them navigate credit, including better understanding their credit file and creditworthiness.

BRS consultation

The BRS requires major lenders to refer SME customers, who have been rejected by that lender and have agreed to be referred, to finance platforms that can match the SME with alternative finance providers. In the consultation, HMT explored whether the BRS could be enhanced to better support SMEs’ access to finance. In particular, HMT asked whether the current size of SME businesses and types of finance products in scope of the BRS were still appropriate. The consultation closed on 22 December 2025.

In view of the responses received to the consultation, the Government does not believe it prudent at the current juncture to continue with proposals that would require legislative change. Instead, it calls upon the commercial sector to come together and deliver alternative proposals to support referrals and SME finance.

The Government calls upon the work of the sector to consider in particular:

  • How to improve the volume/quality of referrals where credit is rejected, and what commitments the financial services sector would be willing to make in this area.
  • How to improve SME awareness and information around securing alternative credit and advice, specifically improving and standardising information that is given to SMEs at the point a loan application is made.
  • What type of explanation could be given to an SME declined for credit and how, balancing the need for this to be useful for the SME with operational challenges in giving detailed explanations.
  • What level of transparency the banking sector would be willing to deliver about the number of credit applications received, those referred to finance platforms and/or other referral bodies, such as Community Development Finance Institutions – in the form of usable and publishable data.
  • Whether a more strategic solution is needed to improve SME readiness for finance and better help the individual SME overcome the difficulties with its application, or wider credit provision.