Assetz Capital applies for £10m grant under the BCR scheme
Assetz Capital has applied for a £10m grant under a government scheme to encourage competition in the banking industry, as the platform continues to scale up its business lending.
The peer-to-peer lending platform intends to use the Pool E Banking Competition Remedies (BCR) grant to help deliver its aim of lending a further £1bn to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), supporting another 25,000 jobs and funding the development of at least 3,500 further new homes by December 2022.
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“We’ve established ourselves to be a leading SME lender, serving the many underserved SMEs seeking loan funding,” said Stuart Law (pictured), chief executive at Assetz Capital.
“We have achieved that and are now ready to scale even further from the current high levels of activity.
“By December 2022 we’re aiming to have lent a further £1bn to SMEs, supporting around another 25,000 jobs and funding the development of at least 3,500 further new homes.
“We have a market-leading lending capability – combining human and technology-based credit assessment, innovative loan application technology and regional relationship directors to meet customers.
“This BCR grant, combined with a further £10m matched contribution from ourselves, would enable us to build on these strong foundations and grow even faster, allowing us to provide even greater support for underserved UK SMEs.”
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The BCR scheme was set up by the UK government to distribute £775m from Royal Bank of Scotland as a condition of its state bailout in 2008.
Assetz Capital has also been looking to grow its business lending during the Covid-19 crisis, as one of the four P2P lending platforms that have been approved to offer the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS).
It is not the only alternative finance provider to tap the BCR funding scheme in recent months. At the end of June, business finance aggregator platform Funding Xchange partnered with small business support network Enterprise Nation in a bid for BCR funding.