Privacy Policy

DGL Commercial Finance Ltd (“we”, “us”, “our”) is the data controller responsible for the personal information described in this policy. We are registered in England & Wales under company number 16775696, with our registered office at 8 Charlton Avenue, Prestwich, Manchester M25 0PH.

We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under registration number ZC076026.

This policy explains how we handle personal information in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and guidance issued by the ICO.

We collect personal information when you:

• complete an enquiry form on our website;
• book a Funding Strategy Review through our online appointment scheduler;
• request or download a guide or other resource from our Resources page;
• email us, telephone us, or message us on WhatsApp, LinkedIn or Facebook;
• speak with us in a call or a Microsoft Teams meeting;
• are introduced to us by an accountant, solicitor or other professional adviser;
• proceed with a funding enquiry and provide supporting documentation.
• We record calls and meetings so that we have accurate notes of your funding requirements and what was agreed. We tell you at the start of each call or meeting. If you ask us not to record, we will not, and we will take written notes instead.

We also collect limited technical information automatically when you browse the site. This is described in our Cookie Policy.

• Identity and contact details — name, business name, job title, email address, telephone number and postal address.
• Enquiry details — the nature of the funding requirement, property or asset details, timescales and intended exit strategy.
• Financial information — where a case progresses, information such as income, assets, liabilities, bank statements, accounts, valuations and details of existing borrowing.
• Verification information — identity documents, proof of address, company records and source of funds evidence collected to meet our anti-money laundering obligations.
• Correspondence — emails, messages, notes of calls and meetings, recordings and transcripts of calls and meetings (unless you have asked us not to record), and records of the advice and options discussed.
• Technical information — IP address, device and browser type and pages visited, where you have consented to analytics cookies.

• Performance of a contract — to assess a funding requirement, approach lenders on your behalf, and administer a case through to completion.
• Legitimate interests — to respond to enquiries, maintain our relationships with clients and professional introducers, keep accurate business records and protect our legal position. We consider these uses proportionate and consistent with your reasonable expectations.
• Legal obligation — to carry out customer due diligence and maintain records under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017, and to meet tax and accounting requirements.
• Consent — for analytics cookies and for any marketing emails. You may withdraw consent at any time.

Where we process special category data, or information about criminal convictions in the course of fraud prevention, we do so only where a further condition under the Data Protection Act 2018 applies.

We use artificial intelligence (AI) software to help us work accurately and efficiently. It helps us summarise emails, documents, call notes and recordings; organise the facts of your case; check calculations; compare possible funding options; and prepare draft correspondence.

A person at DGL reviews everything the AI produces. The AI does not make decisions about you. It does not decide whether a case proceeds, which lender is approached, or whether funding is offered, and it does not send messages on our behalf. Lenders make their own credit decisions.

We use the AI only for the purposes and on the lawful bases set out above. For client work, this is to take steps you have asked us to take (contract) and our legitimate interest in running our business efficiently and keeping accurate records. We give the AI only the information needed for the task. We do not use it to process health or other special category information, or information about criminal offences, unless that is strictly necessary for your case and a further legal condition applies.

Our AI provider is Anthropic (the Claude service), which acts as our data processor under a written data processing agreement. It may not use your information to train its AI models. AI chats about a case are kept while the case is active and deleted no later than six months after it closes. Your case file is kept as described in the Retention section.

If you would prefer that AI tools are not used on your information, please tell us. We will discuss what that means for how we handle your case.

We may share personal information with:

• lenders, funders and their agents, where you have asked us to source funding;
• solicitors, valuers, surveyors and monitoring surveyors instructed on a transaction;
• your accountant, solicitor or introducing adviser, where they are already involved and it is appropriate to keep them sighted;
• credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies, where a lender or our own checks require it;
• our professional advisers, insurers and auditors, and regulators or law enforcement where we are required by law to do so;
• service providers who process information for us under contract: Google Workspace (email, documents, calendar and appointment scheduling), Microsoft 365 (Teams meetings), Anthropic (Claude AI assistant), Plaud (call and meeting recording and transcription), SalesRobot (LinkedIn outreach management), our website host, and Google Analytics where you have consented.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for third-party marketing.

Some of our service providers, including our email, document, AI and recording providers, process information outside the UK, including in the United States. Where they do, we rely on UK adequacy regulations, the International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, together with additional safeguards where appropriate.

• Enquiries that do not proceed — normally retained for up to two years, so we can pick up a conversation if you return to us.
• Client case files — normally retained for six years after the end of our relationship, reflecting the limitation period for contractual claims.
• Anti-money laundering records — retained for five years from the end of the business relationship or the completion of the transaction, as the regulations require.
• Accounting records — retained for six years, as required by HMRC.

When information is no longer needed it is securely deleted or destroyed. Our approach to verification and record keeping is summarised on our Anti-Money Laundering page.

We use reputable cloud services with access controls, multi-factor authentication and encryption in transit and at rest. Access to client information is limited to those who need it. Our approach to maintaining service and protecting information during a disruption is described in our Business Continuity Statement.

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

• be informed about how your information is used;
• request a copy of the information we hold about you;
• have inaccurate information corrected;
• request erasure, where we have no continuing lawful reason to hold it;
• restrict or object to certain processing, including processing based on legitimate interests;
• request portability of information you provided to us;
• withdraw consent at any time, where consent is our lawful basis.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details below. We will respond within one month. There is no charge in ordinary circumstances.

We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing, including profiling, that have legal or similarly significant effects. A person at DGL reviews every decision we make about your case.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, please tell us first so we can put it right. Our Complaints Procedure explains how we will deal with your concern.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at any time: ico.org.uk or 0303 123 1113.

DGL Commercial Finance specialises in commercial and business finance, which is generally outside the scope of Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulation. Where a customer's requirements involve regulated mortgage advice or another regulated activity, we will refer them to an appropriately authorised firm. Our complaints procedure is available to all clients. Eligibility to refer complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service depends on the nature of the services provided and the applicable regulatory framework.

We may update this policy from time to time. The date of the current version is shown below.