from the reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/6j828y/cig_recently_took_out_a_loan_from_coutts_co_in/
"It is also possible that this is nothing more than hedging. CIG holds the majority of their funds in the US. Due to the recent election in Britain, it is likely the British pound will drop - and by a significant amount. It has been on a downward trend for a while now. So instead of shifting assets to the UK for the entire year right now and taking the exchange/tax hit at the current rate, they take out a loan - backed by cash assets in the US (which would require the box checked on the loan to be checked) and pay for Foundry 42 operating expenses out of there.
That will actually earn them money as long as the interest earned in the US + the devaluation of the pound is more than the interest rate of the current loan. A cash backed loan would probably have a reasonably low interest rate, so it isn't much of a risk.
This same type of thing is the reason why most companies do not pay operating expenses from cash reserves. It is almost always easier to do it this way.
It is unlikely CIG is running low on cash. Due to British law, an floating charge loan that results in insolvency within a single year is frequently discharged as the bank should have known better than to offer a loan to an insolvent company. Other creditors get paid first. So the bank had to make a judgement call on whether or not they believed CIG was solvent now and in a situation that they would be for at least a year.
This is almost certainly tied to the pound dropping like a rock. It is getting funds where they are needed without shifting cash around or pulling it from current investments."
and
"That "everything up as collateral" is a legal requirement for the type of loan. There are really only two ways to back a loan by cash or investment assets. You need a way to guarantee that you won't spend that cash or get rid of the investment and leave the bank with nothing for collateral. So instead, you put up "everything" for collateral. This is basically a fancy way of saying you promise to pay and if you don't the bank has claim on liquidation of assets to cover their costs.
As such, for legal reporting you don't put on the form that you are backing it with trust fund XXX - even if that is what you told the bank and showed them. There is a simple check box that tells the courts if the bank has claim on assets to recover the loan or if it does not. In this case, you get a much better interest rate by backing with cash then trying to get an unsecured loan. The lower the interest rate, the better the chance you have to not lose money on the process.
If I were to guess (and I haven't seen their finances - this is just what I would do) they have realized that the pound is likely to drop. Instead of transferring cash from their US subsidiary, they secured the lowest interest rate loan they could using this type of backing. They then put the cash in a short term financing vehicle with a 3%ish rate of return and will sit on it until the loan comes due."