Source: British Business Bank
Today the British Business Bank has announced that it has approved four new lenders for accreditation under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), which provides financial support to smaller businesses (SMEs) across the UK that are losing revenue and seeing their cashflow disrupted, as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak.
The new CBILS lenders are Allied Irish Bank (GB)/AIB (NI) , ThinCats, Paragon Bank and IGF (Independent Growth Finance).
Following their approval, each lender 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 CBILS applications from smaller businesses across the UK.
More than 80% of the UK’s smaller businesses have a finance relationship with CBILS’ 50+ accredited lenders. The British Business Bank is accelerating at pace the onboarding of new lenders to further extend the scheme’s reach.
It was originally announced at Budget that an initial £1bn of government-backed lending would be available through CBILS. The government subsequently announced that it would be a demand-led programme, providing whatever the market needs.
Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS)
In addition, the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS), the scheme to provide finance to mid-sized and larger UK businesses with turnover above £45m, the Bank has also accredited 10 lenders to provide term loans and/or overdrafts. These are Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Clydesdale Bank & Yorkshire Bank, Danske Bank, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, NatWest, Santander, RBS and Ulster Bank.
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Keith Morgan, CEO, British Business Bank, said: “Accredited lenders have continued to see an incredible demand for CBILS, so the Bank is helping to meet that demand and provide even more choice for smaller businesses by approving additional lenders for accreditation to the scheme. The announcement of 14 new lenders for both CBILS and CLBILS means these newly accredited lenders will be able to deploy vital funding and get additional finance flowing to smaller businesses across the UK as quickly as possible.”
Business Secretary Alok Sharma said: “These loans are an essential part of the wide-ranging package of support the government has put in place to help UK businesses. I am delighted to see more lenders offering loans which will, in turn, help even more businesses access the funds they need.”
The Bank continues to review applications from a wide range of lender types - from PRA-regulated banks, to platform lenders, debt funds, invoice finance lenders, asset finance lenders and responsible finance lenders.
About the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS)
The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, delivered through more than 50 British Business Bank accredited lenders, is designed to support the continued provision of finance to UK smaller businesses (SMEs) during the Covid-19 outbreak. The scheme enables lenders to provide facilities of up to £5m to smaller businesses across the UK who are experiencing lost or deferred revenues, leading to disruptions to their cashflow.
The scheme supports a wide range of business finance products, including term loans, overdrafts, invoice finance and asset finance facilities.