Further accreditations for coronavirus loan schemes

Keith Morgan

The British Business Bank has announced that it has approved 11 new lenders under the Government’s various coronavirus lending schemes, including two in Manchester.

Arbuthnot Lathom and Coutts, which have offices in King Street and Spinningfields, respectively, will join the 21 other Bounce Back Loan Scheme lenders who have been accredited since the scheme opened.

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 applications from smaller businesses across the UK.

Keith Morgan, British Business Bank chief executive, said: “Our accredited lenders continue to see high levels of demand for COVID-19 business loan schemes.

“Accrediting these additional finance providers means further support for smaller business customers and continues the British Business Bank’s long-term objective to offer more diverse sources of finance to smaller businesses.”

Government published statistics show more than one million businesses have to date benefited from in excess of £42bn in loans and guarantees through schemes delivered by the British Business Bank.

This includes 967,321 Bounce Back Loans worth £29.5bn, 52,275 loans worth more than £11bn through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, and £2.3bn through the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme.

The accelerated accreditation process the British Business Bank has put in place for the coronavirus loan schemes means it has been able to more than double the number of CBILS lenders since the scheme’s launch, increasing the number from 41 to 99.

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.

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