Access to Financial Services for Ethnic Minority-led Businesses Code

Access to Financial Services for Ethnic Minority-led Businesses Code

Ethnic minority-led businesses are among the UK’s most ambitious and high growth enterprises. They are, for example, much more likely than other businesses to be looking to increase international sales, or to be seeking to expand into new products, channels or locations.

Ethnic minority-led businesses are also much more likely to experience challenges when seeking access to the financial services they need to grow.

To address these challenges, in 2025, the LSB is launching a new Code – The Access to Financial Services for Ethnic Minority-led Businesses Code. This Code is designed to help financial services providers offer ethnic minority-led businesses the support that will help them unleash their potential.

The Scale of the Challenge

In 2023, the LSB published a report on the challenges experienced by ethnic minority-led businesses when they seek to engage with the financial services sector. The barriers to finance identified in the report ranged from communications issues to a lack of understanding in the financial services sector of the cultural or religious contexts in which some ethnic minority-led businesses operate.

Research for the LSB by RFI Global in 2025 demonstrated how these barriers can have serious consequences for ethnic minority-led businesses. This research found that:

• Just 19% of ethnic minority-led SMEs applying for a lending product in the last 12 months had their application accepted for the full amount, compared to 58% of White British-led counterparts.
• 90% of ethnic minority-led businesses said they experience challenges when applying for lending, compared to 69% of White British-led SMEs.
• 44% of ethnic minority-led businesses have made a complaint about their lender in the last 12 months, more-than double the 19% of White British-led SMEs who have done the same. The leading cause of complaints for ethnic minority-led businesses, flagged by 53% of these businesses, was being ‘unfairly declined’ – just 18% of White British-led businesses made this type of complaint.
• Complex documentation requirements are a much bigger concern for ethnic minority-led businesses than for White British-led businesses, with this issue featuring in ethnic minority-led businesses’ top-five challenges but not in the top-five challenges for other SMEs.

The Access to Financial Services for Ethnic Minority-led Businesses Code

The LSB’s new Code has been developed in conjunction with ethnic minority-led businesses and financial services providers. It is supported by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ethnic Minority Business Owners.

The Code aims to improve access to financial services for ethnic minority-led businesses and will commit its signatories to the achieving a number of principles:

1. Firms commit to reducing barriers and improving accessibility of products and services to increase access to financial services for ethnic minority-led businesses.
2. Firms have greater awareness of the needs of ethnic minority-led businesses and use this to ensure products and services are working well for all customers.
3. Firms will use insights, evidence and best practice to ensure their approach is meeting the needs of, and delivering good outcomes to, ethnic minority-led businesses.
4. Firms will engage in cross industry sharing of best practice to support the delivery of good outcomes for ethnic minority-led businesses when accessing and using financial services. 

Progress against these commitments will be reviewed by the LSB and we will report annually once the Code launches.

This page will be updated with more information as the Code is finalised, including details of the inaugural signatory firms.

If you are a financial services provider interested in signing up to this Code, please contact contactus@lstdb.org.uk.