Debenture
A document evidencing or acknowledging a company's indebtedness. Under the Companies Acts the term extends beyond simple loan agreements to debenture stock and bonds, and debentures are commonly secured by a fixed charge, a floating charge, or both.
Independent editorial summary — not the official statute text. Read the official version on legislation.gov.uk.
The statutory definition in the Companies Act 2006 is deliberately broad rather than tied to a single legal form: '"debenture" includes debenture stock, bonds and any other securities of a company, whether or not constituting a charge on the assets of the company.' A debenture does not have to be secured at all to count as a debenture in law, though in practice most commercial debentures are.
HMRC's own operational guidance explains why security matters so much in practice: 'A debenture provides a charge over a debtor's assets as security for money loaned by debenture holder, usually a bank or other financial institution. The most common type of debenture comprises both a ‘fixed’ and a ‘floating’ charge.' The debenture document itself is what identifies which of the company's assets fall under each type of charge, which matters directly for what a secured lender can do if the company defaults.
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Official sources
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