Introduced piecemeal since September 2007, the Companies Act 2006 will be fully implemented in October 2009 and aims to decrease the regulatory burden on businesses. The DTI estimates the lighter regulation will deliver total savings of £300 million to businesses, with £250 million being saved before September 2009. Many people will question how this can be the case: for example, it is true that the abolition of the requirement (for private companies) to have a company secretary will cut costs for some companies, but this is hardly significant. The requirement to get court approval to reduce a company’s share capital is also abolished and we will have wait and see how many companies will feel the benefit. Most notable is the abolition of the prohibition on the giving of financial assistance by a company for the purchase of shares in itself. The requirement for the expensive and convoluted ‘whitewash’ procedure will no longer need to be followed thus saving companies thousands in legal fees. However, whether the maxim, “too good to be true” should be applied remains to be seen and it has been suggested that lenders may now, without the statutory financial assistance provisions focusing directors’ attention on the credit effect of financial assistance transactions, contemplate introducing provisions in their loan agreements prohibiting financial assistance without their consent.