Who are the top lenders to UK companies in 2026? Property finance leads by far

Which lenders hold the most debentures against UK companies in 2026?

The Mortgage Works, Nationwide's buy-to-let mortgage brand, is the largest single debenture holder with 5,522 charges registered against UK companies between January and May 2026, ahead of Lloyds Bank (4,436) and Together Commercial Finance (3,715). Barclays Bank (3,218) and Aldermore Bank (3,074) complete the top five, which together account for 19,965 charges, 44.4% of the combined top-25 total of 44,957.

Property dominates this list. Of the top 25 holders, 17 are specialist property, buy-to-let or bridging lenders, including The Mortgage Works, Together Commercial Finance, Godiva Mortgages, Kensington Mortgage Company, Paragon Bank, Fleet Mortgages and LendInvest. Combined, these specialists account for 30,103 charges, around 67% of the top-25 total, more than double the 12,548 charges held by the four mainstream high street banks in the list (Lloyds Bank, Barclays Bank, HSBC and NatWest), a ratio of 2.4 to 1.

This pattern is consistent with the wider move of buy-to-let property into limited company ownership following tax changes affecting individual landlords, since company-owned property lending typically requires a debenture or mortgage charge to be registered at Companies House in a way that personal buy-to-let borrowing does not. LendInvest and its associated LendInvest Security Trustees entity together hold 1,617 charges, underlining the scale that specialist bridging and development lenders have reached in the company charge data.

Key insights

• The Mortgage Works is the largest single debenture holder with 5,522 charges YTD 2026, ahead of Lloyds Bank (4,436) and Together Commercial Finance (3,715).
• Property and BTL-focused specialist lenders account for an estimated 67% (30,103 of 44,957) of charge volume among the top 25 holders.
• The top 5 holders account for 19,965 charges, 44.4% of the top-25 total.
• Specialist property and BTL lenders hold 2.4 times as many charges as the four high street banks in the top 25 combined (30,103 vs 12,548).
• LendInvest and LendInvest Security Trustees together hold 1,617 charges, reflecting continued growth in bridging and development finance.
• Only 4 of the top 25 holders are mainstream high street banks; the remaining 21 are specialist mortgage, property, or other commercial lenders.

Top 25 UK company debenture holders, January to May 2026

What this means

The scale of property and BTL-specialist lending in the company charge data reflects a structural shift rather than a temporary spike. As tax changes have made personal buy-to-let ownership less attractive, landlords have increasingly moved portfolios into limited company structures, and company-owned property lending shows up in Companies House charge data in a way personal mortgages do not. The result is that specialist mortgage lenders such as The Mortgage Works, Together and Aldermore now register more company charges than the traditional high street banks. For lenders and brokers, this points to continued demand for company-structured BTL and bridging finance, and suggests that competition for this business is increasingly concentrated among specialist providers rather than mainstream banks.