FAQs

Cambridge & Counties Bank is owned by Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and Cambridgeshire Local Government Pension Fund.

Cambridge & Counties Bank is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority.

Cambridge & Counties Bank is an authorised UK bank which focuses on providing financial products to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). We fund our loans using customer deposits. As we do not borrow money from the wholesale markets we do not require a credit rating.

We are owned in equal shares by Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and Cambridgeshire Local Government Pension Fund and regulated by both the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulatory Authority. We are a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which protects the deposits of small to medium sized businesses which meet the FSCS criteria; full details of which can be found at www.fscs.org.uk.

Both the management of the Bank and the owners have a conservative approach to risk management and the bank holds levels of capital and liquidity in excess of all regulatory requirements. We see our primary banking responsibility to be to protect our depositors.

Full details of our financial performance including our capital ratios can be found in our statutory accounts which are available by request. We publish a summary of our annual accounts, which can be found here.

We operate a simple, traditional banking model where we take in savings from organisations and lend funds to small and medium businesses. We don’t invest in areas such as the stock market and the majority of the cash that we hold over and above what we lend is held with the Bank of England.

In terms of who we lend to, our focus is on ensuring we are lending to established, financially stable, good quality businesses based in the UK. We do not lend to high risk businesses, nor to those involved in the arms industry or other industry sectors which do not meet our traditional lending criteria. Our typical lending is to businesses in our key regions, where we have Business Development Managers on the ground that know those areas. We lend to commercial owner occupiers in sectors such as manufacturing and also to residential and commercial property investors. We also offer Asset Finance secured on items critical to the business operation such as plant machinery.

Our owners, a Cambridge University College and a Local Government, do have a prudent approach to any risk which includes reputational risk arising from any organisation we lend to.

A summary of our annual results can be found here.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) was divided into two new authorities on 1st April 2013. The new authorities are the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The PRA is part of the Bank of England and has a primary responsibility to ensure the safety and soundness of the banks and other financial institutions which it regulates. More information on the PRA can be found here.

The FCA reports to the Treasury and their aim is to protect consumers, ensure the industry remains stable and promote healthy competition between financial services providers. More information about the FCA can be found on their website at: www.fca.org.uk.

Cambridge & Counties Bank is authorised by the PRA and is regulated by both authorities.

Our Pillar 3 Disclosures can be found here.

Our Internal Audit Charter can be found here.