More lenders approved for emergency loan schemes, but no P2P!
The British Business Bank has accredited several lenders for emergency loan schemes aimed at supporting businesses through Covid-19 but is yet to approve more peer-to-peer lending platforms.
The bank has approved five lenders for accreditation under the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS), four under the coronavirus large business interruption loan scheme (CLBILS) and one under the bounce back loan scheme (BBLS).
CBILS provides loans of up to £250,000 without personal guarantees to small- and medium-sized enterprises. Growth Lending, inFund, Invocap, NEL Fund Managers and Triple Point have been approved to deliver the scheme.
CLBILS, which is aimed at larger businesses with a group turnover of more than £45m, has a maximum cap of £20m for loans. New CLBILS lenders include: Greensill, Metro Bank, Secure Trust Bank and OakNorth Bank, which has also recently been approved to deliver CBILS.
Furthermore, BBLS a provides loans up to £50,000 and is backed by a 100 per cent government guarantee.
Read more: Bounce back loans dominate as lenders fund £27.5bn of coronavirus business support
Paragon Bank will join the other 19 BBLS lenders who have been accredited since it opened last month.
Following their approval, each lender will be putting in place the operations required to start lending under the scheme and will soon confirm the dates from which they will be ready to start receiving applications.
Read more: MarketFinance v Funding Circle: How their CBILS products compare
“Our accredited lenders have seen an incredible demand for Covid-19 business loan schemes since they became available,” said Keith Morgan, chief executive of the British Business Bank.
“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.”
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 86.
According to the Treasury, banks and business lenders have distributed £34.9bn to date through the three main government-backed lending programmes.
