The British Business Bank has announced that it has approved the Bank of Ireland UK and Skipton Business Finance to join the existing 14 accredited lenders under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS). These lenders will be able to provide financial support to smaller businesses across the UK that are losing revenue and seeing their cash flow disrupted, as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak. The lenders that have already been accredited are AIB, Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Clydesdale Bank & Yorkshire Bank, Danske Bank, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, NatWest, Santander, Starling Bank, The Co-operative Bank, TSB, RBS and Ulster Bank.
The BBLS is a demand-led scheme offering lending that targets small and micro businesses, providing loans from £2k up to 25% of the business’ turnover with a maximum loan of £50k. Providing lenders with a 100% government-backed guarantee, the standardised application form means a faster process with many loans becoming available within days. The scheme enables businesses to obtain a six-year term loan at a government set interest rate of 2.5% a year. The government will cover interest payable in the first year.
Keith Morgan, CEO, British Business Bank, said, “Accredited lenders have continued to see an incredible demand for the Covid-19 business loan schemes. Since launch, we have grown the total number of accredited lenders to the schemes by more than 50 percent to provide even greater coverage and choice for smaller businesses. The announcement of a further six new lenders means they will be able to deploy vital funding and get additional finance flowing to smaller businesses across the UK as quickly as possible.”
Additionally, the Bank has announced it has approved four new lenders for accreditation under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS). Shawbrook Bank, MarketFinance, Bank Leumi (UK) plc (including Leumi ABL Ltd) and Capital on Tap join the 60+ existing CBILS accredited lenders that already offer the scheme to smaller businesses across the UK. Following their approval, these new lenders will be putting in place the operations required to start lending under the scheme and will confirm shortly the dates from which they will be ready to start receiving BBLS or CBILS applications from smaller businesses across the UK.
This week the government published new statistics that show businesses have benefitted from over £27 billion in loans and guarantees to support their cashflow during the crisis through schemes delivered by the British Business Bank. This includes 608,000 BBLS worth £18.4 billion, 43,000 loans worth over £8 billion through the CBILS and £820 million through the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme.