British Business Bank approves more CBILS lenders
The British Business Bank has approved four new lenders for accreditation under the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS) to deliver finance to businesses impacted by Covid-19.
While the FSE Group, FW Capital, Mercia Asset Management and Whiterock Finance have now been approved for the scheme, many peer-to-peer lending platforms are still waiting for accreditation.
Peer2Peer Finance News’ ‘Back Our Industry’ campaign urges the government to include more P2P lenders in delivering emergency help to small businesses and housebuilders.
The British Business Bank said it continues to review applications from a wide range of lenders and has increased the number of lenders delivering CBILS by 90 per cent since the scheme’s launch.
Read more: Which government-backed SME funding schemes are open to P2P lenders?
The newly approved lenders will be able to provide financial support to smaller businesses in the Northern Powerhouse and Midlands Engine regions, as well as Northern Ireland.
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 CBILS applications.
Read more: Bounce back loans ‘outperforming’ CBILS
“Our accredited lenders have seen an incredible demand for Covid-19 business loan schemes since they became available,” said Keith Morgan, chief executive of British Business Bank.
“Accrediting these four additional regional 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.”
According to figures from the Treasury last week, emergency government support schemes have channelled over £22bn to 505,043 businesses, including 40,564 CBILS loans collectively worth £7.25bn.