Funding Circle to provide top-ups under BBLS
Funding Circle will provide top-ups under the bounce back loan scheme (BBLS) with relevant existing borrowers currently able to register their interest.
This week, the British Business Bank outlined that lenders offering loans under the 100 per cent government-backed scheme are now able to offer borrowers a top-up if they originally took out less than the maximum amount.
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Top-ups are only available from a borrower’s existing BBLS lender. A borrower can apply for a top-up that is for the lesser of £50,000 or 25 per cent of their annual turnover, minus the value of their original loan.
Funding Circle is the only peer-to-peer lending platform to be accredited for, and deliver funds, under the scheme.
A spokesperson from the platform confirmed that it is going to be able to provide BBLS top-ups and relevant existing customers are currently able to register their interest.
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Although Funding Circle has delivered funds to small businesses under BBLS, the majority of its funds to companies during the pandemic have been deployed through the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS).
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At the LendIt Fintech Europe 2020 virtual conference in October, Lisa Jacobs, UK managing director at Funding Circle, said that the platform has become the fifth largest CBILS lender, having already lent more than £800m to businesses under CBILS.
She put this down to two-thirds of Funding Circle’s CBILS borrowers being new to the platform.