Legal
How we collect, use and protect your personal data, and the rights you have over it.
Advanced Funding Solutions is the trading name of Adlam Financial Limited (company number 09924372), a commercial finance broker. Registered office: 23 Woodland Road, Darlington, DL3 7BJ. Trading address: The Quadrus Centre, Woodstock Way, Boldon Business Park, Boldon Colliery, NE35 9PF. We act as a broker for our customers, not a lender. Adlam Financial Limited t/a Advanced Funding Solutions is an Appointed Representative of AFS Compliance Limited, which is Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, FRN 625035. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) under registration number ZB169785.
Adlam Financial Limited t/a Advanced Funding Solutions is the controller and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as “Advanced Funding Solutions”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice). This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.
It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you, so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.
This version was last updated in July 2026 and historic versions can be obtained by contacting us at info@advancedfunding.co.uk. It sets out your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).
We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:
We may also collect, store and use the following “special categories” of more sensitive personal information: information about your health, including medical conditions, particularly where you are classified as a vulnerable individual as a result of your medical condition.
We also collect, use and share aggregated data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law, as it does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. If we combine or connect aggregated data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.
Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you, for example to source and arrange finance on your behalf. In this case, we may have to cancel a service you have with us, but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.
We collect data directly from you when you complete an enquiry or call-back form on our website, contact us by phone, email, WhatsApp or in person, or engage us to arrange finance on your behalf.
We also receive personal data from third parties, including identity, contact and profile data from providers of business information such as Credit Safe, Experian and Companies House, and from introducers and other businesses with whom we have a trading relationship.
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly we rely on the following lawful bases: consent, performance of a contract with you (or steps you have asked us to take before entering a contract), compliance with a legal obligation, and our legitimate interests (or those of a third party), where your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. We may process your personal data on more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using it; contact us at info@advancedfunding.co.uk if you need details of the specific legal ground we are relying on.
We will process your personal information for the following reasons:
| Purpose / activity | Type of data | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| To find a suitable source of finance based on your circumstances | Identity, Contact, Financial, Transaction, Marketing & Communications | Contractual; Legitimate interest (to promote financial products we believe may be of interest to you) |
| To undertake credit checks for the purposes of finding the most suitable finance product | Identity, Contact, Financial, Transaction | Contractual |
| To confirm your affordability for the financial requirement you have proposed to us | Identity, Contact, Financial, Transaction | Contractual |
| To comply with our anti-money laundering and know your client requirements | Identity, Contact, Financial, Transaction | Legal obligation |
| To meet our regulatory responsibilities | Identity, Contact, Financial, Transaction | Legal obligation |
We may use your identity, contact and marketing and communications data to form a view on which of our services may be of interest to you and to tell you about them. You will receive marketing communications from us only where permitted by law, and you can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by contacting us at info@advancedfunding.co.uk or using the opt-out in any message. Opting out of marketing will not affect the processing of personal data needed to arrange your finance.
Automated decision-making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention. We are allowed to use automated decision-making in the following circumstances: where we have notified you of the decision and given you 21 days to request a reconsideration; where it is necessary to perform the contract with you and appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights; or, in limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent and where appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights.
If we make an automated decision on the basis of any particularly sensitive personal information, we must have either your explicit written consent or it must be justified in the public interest, and we must also put in place appropriate measures to safeguard your rights.
Many of our funders use auto-scoring technology to underwrite deals. You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making, unless we have a lawful basis for doing so and we have notified you.
We will share your personal information with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary to administer the contractual relationship with you, or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so. “Third parties” includes third-party service providers (including contractors and designated agents) and other entities within our group. The following third parties process personal information about you for the following purposes:
We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We have a data protection regime in place to oversee the effective and secure processing of your personal data.
We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Details of retention periods are available in our retention policy, which is available by contacting us at info@advancedfunding.co.uk.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the purposes for which we process it and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you.
We do not transfer your personal data outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area (EEA).
Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at info@advancedfunding.co.uk. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information or to exercise any of the other rights; however, we may charge a reasonable fee if a request is clearly unfounded or excessive, or refuse to comply in such circumstances. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity, as a security measure to ensure personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.
If you wish to raise a complaint about how we have handled your personal data, contact us at info@advancedfunding.co.uk and we will investigate the matter. If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are not processing your personal data in accordance with the law, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113, quoting our registration number ZB169785.
Our website uses one optional analytics service, Google Analytics, which sets cookies to help us understand how visitors use the site (for example, which pages are most useful). These cookies are only set if you accept them via the consent banner shown on your first visit, and IP addresses are anonymised. You can decline, or change your mind at any time by clearing the site's data in your browser, and the website works fully either way. Third-party services embedded in or linked from our website, such as the Calendly booking widget and WhatsApp, may set their own cookies and process data under their own privacy policies, which we encourage you to read. You can also set your browser to refuse all or some cookies; if you do, some embedded features may not function.
Adlam Financial Limited t/a Advanced Funding Solutions, The Quadrus Centre, Woodstock Way, Boldon Business Park, Boldon Colliery, NE35 9PF. Email info@advancedfunding.co.uk. Telephone 0191 486 2089.
