he house. If you default on the loan repayments then the lender has priority before any other person to take possession of the property and sell it to repay the debt. Any financial surplus would then be returned to you.Bank lending to businesses is no different. The same key conditions apply. The difference is that most businesses don't own the property they occupy. So financial security has to be found elsewhere.In years gone by, many businesses obtained their finance through the banks overdraft facilities. As security the banks registered a debenture over the company's assets giving them "a fixed and floating financial charge" over the company's assets. A fixed financial charge means that a lender has priority rights over a specific asset, like the property example above. With a floating charge, the lender ranks after certain preferential creditors; therefore it doesn't give the same part of protection to the lender in the event the latter has to recover its financial borrowing.Property apart, the main asset in a company is usually the finance due by its customers, known as trade debtors, book debts or accounts receivable. There was a time up until a few years ago, a bank was able to secure its financial lending with a first fixed charge over book debts. With a high proportion of debtors usually recoverable in the event of a customer entering insolvency, banks were often prepared to provide financial support by way of overdraft. Due to various legal judgements, this is no longer the case. Only if book debts are paid into a separate account by the financial director over which the lender has control, as opposed to mixed with other monies in an overdrawn account, will a lender have first call on book financial debt recoveries in an insolvency.This has resulted in a huge increase in business for companies such as Factors and Invoice Discounters who specialise in lending against book debts. On the other side, financial lending by banks on overdraft has greatly contracted.Financial overdrafts and loans are of course still available, but security is sought outside the business. This is normally by way of personal guarantees from the business owner/finacial directors frequently supported by charges over their homes. If you as a business owner/director are not prepared to give this security, it is unlikely you will get the finance. If you do not have the confidence to back your business by putting your finance/assets on the line and w