The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has revealed plans to launch the first IP-backed loans for high growth businesses in Scotland – allowing them to access vital funding using the value of their Intellectual Property as collateral, instead of traditional physical assets.

It follows a change in Scottish law earlier this year whereby the Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Act 2023 took effect, giving lenders the ability to accept effective security over IP rights.

Next year, loans ranging from £250,000 up to £10 million, will improve the funding pipeline for high-growth Scottish businesses who, because of their lack of fixed assets, often find it difficult to secure funding to drive their growth.

RBS’ parent NatWest Group launched IP-backed loans in 2024 under its NatWest brand and has already agreed to lend high growth businesses in England and Wales in excess of £22m total funding. These include companies specialising in cloud-based software services, smart system technology, state of the art engineering and AI gaming platforms.