Provider FAQs

StepEx is a UK tuition-finance lender. StepEx Lender Ltd, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 824928), lends to students so they can pay for a course over time. Education providers make their courses eligible; StepEx assesses the applicants, provides the credit, settles the fee with the provider and collects the repayments.

StepEx Lender Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Step Exchange Ltd. The provider is never the lender.

No. StepEx Lender Ltd is the lender under every agreement and carries the regulatory responsibility for the credit.

Yes: universities, further-education colleges, professional and vocational schools, bootcamps and online programme managers. The common requirements are a defined course fee, a confirmable place, and a UK-resident applicant aged 18 or over.

StepEx lends to applicants with a UK residential address for courses at providers it has agreements with.

Live credit agreements are assets of StepEx Lender Ltd and would continue to be serviced or transferred under the existing wind-down arrangements StepEx has in place, in line with FCA rules. Repayments already passed to you are yours, and your share of repayments collected on live agreements would continue to be passed to you under those arrangements.

StepEx's model is designed to be used by education providers that hold no FCA permission. StepEx Lender Ltd holds the permissions for the lending: it assesses every applicant, enters into the credit agreement, collects the repayments and is responsible for every financial promotion it approves. Your staff display promotions StepEx has created and approved and direct students to StepEx; they do not advise on the finance, help with applications, handle repayments or receive anything for introductions. StepEx's analysis of how the model stays within the FCA's perimeter is published in the sign-posting guide, and StepEx discusses it with every provider's compliance team before launch.

No. Your staff place StepEx-approved promotions and point students to StepEx. They should not describe terms, recommend borrowing or help complete an application. Under Managed Promotions a StepEx finance expert takes those conversations. What staff may say

No. Every statement about StepEx finance is a financial promotion that StepEx must create and approve. You choose where approved content appears.

Most courses StepEx finances fall within section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. If a student has a claim against you for breach of contract or misrepresentation about the course, they have the same claim against StepEx, and StepEx is entitled to recover from you what it pays out, under the services agreement and the complaint-handling schedule. In practice: resolve course complaints under your own procedure first, and tell StepEx about any that touch the finance. StepEx handles every complaint it receives in line with FCA rules, and a student can take an unresolved complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

No. You set your fees and decide who you admit. StepEx makes the lending decision only.

Yes. Finance is configured per course, fee and intake, and you choose which of StepEx's three repayment products to offer. You can start with one course or intake and add more.

You control admission to the course. StepEx controls the lending decision, which is based on identity, affordability and creditworthiness checks plus any eligibility rule you have set for your courses. StepEx will tell you the category of decision but not the detail, and does not share its internal decision thresholds.

Where you set your own eligibility rules, the provider portal shows which of three likelihood-to-repay bands (high, medium or low) StepEx has placed an application in, for applicants who have passed StepEx's own identity, affordability and creditworthiness checks, and you can choose whether your courses accept the low band. The band is StepEx's own classification; you do not see the credit file, the score or the reasons for a decision, and StepEx's checks cannot be overridden for any applicant.

Applicants must be 18 or over with a UK residential address. StepEx verifies identity, assesses affordability from income and expenditure evidence (including Open Banking where the applicant chooses it), checks credit history with Experian, and applies any provider eligibility rules. Approval is not guaranteed.

StepEx does not pay course fees upfront. When a student's finance is approved and signed, the fee is settled through the student's credit agreement with StepEx, with effect from the 1st of the month after signing or the 1st of the course-start month if later. StepEx then collects the monthly repayments and passes your share of each one to you: 95% of each repayment collected, or 93% where the agreement needs income monitoring, subject to the minimum servicing fee per repayment in the standard pricing schedule.

Monthly, on the terms in your services agreement, with a statement of collections and payouts in the provider portal.

You do. StepEx is paid from what it collects, so if a student stops repaying, your receipts on that agreement stop too; StepEx's exposure is limited to its fees. In return you set the commercial eligibility criteria and, within the regulatory bounds StepEx sets, terms such as the repayment length and the cost of credit. The economics

A monthly account fee, an origination fee for each agreement originated, and a servicing fee on amounts collected. There is no charge for a course-only referral. The current standard schedule is at /standard-business-terms; the figures that apply to you are in your services agreement. Managed Promotions is charged separately at £1,000 a month plus £25 per originated agreement.

StepEx handles it: reminders, arrears notices, support for borrowers in difficulty, credit reporting and, if needed, enforcement. You are not involved in collections and should not discuss repayments with the student.

No. Once settlement takes effect the student's debt is owed to StepEx, not to you, and collecting it is StepEx's regulated activity. Academic sanctions for a debt owed to a third party are also likely to be unfair under consumer law. Your protection is the model itself: every student is checked before a place is filled and StepEx collects, reports and enforces. If you want less exposure, tighten your eligibility rules, decline the low likelihood-to-repay band, require a deposit or shorten the term.

With an internal plan you are the creditor and run the credit yourself. With StepEx you still carry the repayment risk on your students, but every student is identity-, affordability- and credit-checked before a place is filled, the agreement is a regulated credit agreement with StepEx, and StepEx collects, reports to Experian and handles arrears and enforcement.

StepEx lends against a specific course at a provider it has an agreement with, so the finance options, representative examples and eligibility rules are set per course. The provider's page on stepex.co shows exactly what is available for each course.

The courses, fees and intakes to make eligible; which repayment products to offer; your logo and brand for the provider page; a named contact for confirming applications; a signed services agreement; and agreement on where StepEx-approved promotions will appear.

Launch depends on confirming eligible courses and cohorts, branding the student journey and a final compliance check on the promotions. There is no systems integration. Most providers are live within days of confirming their courses.

Every provider sees originations, collections and payouts in the provider portal each month. Managed Promotions adds an aggregate dashboard of demand, progression, decision outcomes and drop-off reasons.

StepEx. Applicants and borrowers contact StepEx through stepex.co/contact and, under Managed Promotions, through a callback request or a booked call from your StepEx page.

How it works · For finance teams · For admissions · Staff guide · Speak to StepEx