British Business Bank ramps up Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme

The British Business Bank today announced a number of new lenders under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, delivered through 40-plus British Business Bank accredited lenders, is designed to support the continued provision of finance to UK smaller businesses during the coronavirus outbreak. Picture: Jon Savage

The Co-operative Bank, Cynergy Bank, OakNorth Bank and Starling Bank have now been approved by the British Business Bank, the UK government’s economic development lender set up in 2014.

Following their approval, each lender will be putting in place the operations required to start lending under the scheme and will confirm the dates from which they will be ready to start receiving CBILS applications from smaller businesses across the UK.

The British Business Bank said more than 80 per cent of the UK’s smaller businesses have a “finance relationship” with the 40-plus existing CBILS-accredited lenders.

Amid concerns that some businesses are struggling to secure emergency loans, it is “accelerating the onboarding of new lenders to further extend the scheme’s reach” while “significantly” increasing the size of its accreditation team.

Keith Morgan, chief executive of the British Business Bank, said: “Our accredited lenders have seen an incredible demand for CBILS in the past few weeks, so we are helping to meet that demand and provide even more choice for smaller businesses by approving additional lenders for accreditation to the scheme.

“These new lenders will be able to deploy vital funding and get additional finance flowing to smaller businesses across the UK as quickly as possible.”

Shortly before the launch of CBILS, three lenders – Arkle Finance, Close Brothers and Secure Trust Bank – were accredited under the Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) scheme and have also been accredited under CBILS and are ready to take applications from smaller businesses. Coutts has been accredited for CBILS as part of RBS Group’s existing accreditation.

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