What this page covers
This page covers
Statistics covering market size and growth, costs and pricing, speed of setup, industry breakdown, late payment statistics, and provider market concentration
Not covered here
Individual provider reviews, guides on how invoice finance works, cost calculators
Underlying provider data
These statistics are built on our verified provider dataset. See the full table of per-provider service charge, advance rate, minimum turnover and setup speed in the UK Invoice Finance Rate Index.
Market Size & Growth
Invoice finance and asset-based lending provided by UK Finance's members at any one time ("well over £20 billion"), to tens of thousands of UK client businesses. Source: UK Finance
Approximate finance provided each year by UK Finance's invoice finance and asset-based lending members ("around £150 billion"). The businesses they supported had a combined annual turnover of over £315 billion in 2024. Source: UK Finance
Share of UK invoice finance client sales put through invoice discounting in 2017 (£289.5bn of £311.0bn, domestic and export), against about 7% through factoring. By number of clients the two were much closer (16,519 domestic discounting vs 15,291 domestic factoring clients). Source: UK Finance, Q4 2017 statistics
Active providers in our directory of 87 UK invoice finance providers, from high street banks to specialist independents. 27 of them publish enough terms for a full comparison. Source: Market Invoice provider directory
Costs & Pricing
Indicative market range for the service charge, as a share of invoice value. It is a UK broker's published statement of where charges usually fall, not any provider's price: Time Finance, Skipton Business Finance, Close Brothers, the high street banks, Bibby and Ultimate Finance publish no service charge and agree it per facility. Source: ABC Finance (checked 25 Sep 2026); Market Invoice Rate Index
Providers in our terms dataset that publish a percentage fee or rate at all, including lenders whose published figure is a loan rate rather than an invoice finance service charge. The rest, including the high street banks, Bibby, Ultimate Finance, Time Finance, Skipton and Close Brothers, quote per facility. Source: Market Invoice Rate Index
Highest advance rate published by a direct invoice finance lender in our dataset (Ultimate Finance and HSBC). Most publish "up to 90%". Recruitment funders such as Sonovate advertise up to 100% on a different model. Source: Market Invoice Rate Index
Speed & Setup
Average advertised setup time across the 20 providers in our terms dataset that offer invoice finance and publish a setup time. Non-high-street providers average 5.8 days vs 12.5 for high street banks. Source: Market Invoice analysis
Fastest advertised setup in our dataset (Hydr). Full whole-ledger facilities from Close Brothers, Bibby and Ultimate Finance take around one working week. Source: Market Invoice comparison
Typical time to fund an individual invoice once a facility is live. Many providers offer same-day CHAPS. Source: Market Invoice comparison
Which Sectors Use It
Recruitment, manufacturing, transport, construction and wholesale are among the main users of invoice finance in the UK. No public source publishes a current per-sector split of lending, so we do not show one. UK Finance's figures for the market as a whole are below.
Sector guides: invoice finance by industry.
Late Payment Statistics
Owed to UK businesses in late payments at any given time, on average £17,000 per business affected. Source: Department for Business and Trade and the Office of the Small Business Commissioner, late payments research (31 Jul 2025)
Estimated annual cost of late payment to the UK economy. Source: Department for Business and Trade and the Office of the Small Business Commissioner, late payments research (31 Jul 2025)
Businesses that close each year because of late payment, about 38 a day. Source: Department for Business and Trade and the Office of the Small Business Commissioner, late payments research (31 Jul 2025)
Provider Market
Bank-owned providers (Lloyds, HSBC, Barclays, NatWest, Close Brothers) sit alongside independents such as Bibby Financial Services. No public source publishes current market shares by provider type, so we do not estimate one.
Year Barclays agreed to transfer its factoring portfolio to 4Syte (announced February 2021). Barclays still offers invoice discounting. Source: 4Syte
Published · Updated . Sources: UK Finance, Department for Business and Trade / Office of the Small Business Commissioner, 4Syte, Market Invoice original analysis. See our editorial policy and full research report.