Two more lenders accredited for government emergency schemes

The British Business Bank (BBB) has approved two more banks to deliver the government’s emergency loan schemes.

The Bank of India has been accredited to deliver the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS) to provide support to small- and medium-sized enterprises suffering from cashflow disruptions or deferred revenues due to Covid-19.

Silicon Valley Bank has been approved for the coronavirus large business interruption loan scheme (CLBILS), to provide finance to mid-sized and larger businesses with a group turnover of more than £45m that have been hit by the pandemic.

The lenders will put in place the preparations required to start lending under the schemes and will soon confirm the dates when they will be ready to start receiving applications, the BBB said.

“Our accredited lenders continue to see high levels of demand for Covid-19 business loan schemes,” said Keith Morgan, chief executive of the BBB.

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

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The Treasury’s latest figures this week have showed that lenders have supported more than 1.1 million businesses with £46.3bn of government-backed emergency loans during the pandemic.

Lenders have provided £11.9bn worth of facilities to 54,500 companies through CBILS and £2.7bn through CLBILS.

However, few P2P lending platforms have been approved to deliver the schemes.

Funding Circle was the first P2P firm to be able to offer CBILS and is now able to offer the 100 per cent government-guaranteed bounce back loan scheme as well.

Assetz Capital was subsequently approved for CBILS, followed by LendingCrowd and Folk2Folk.

The BBB has said it continues to review applications from a wide range of lender types.