News

New Lenders accredited to British Business Bank Coronavirus Business Loan Schemes

  • JCB Finance accredited to Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS)
  • Arbuthnot Commercial ABL, Shire Leasing and Silicon Valley Bank to join almost 80 existing CBILS accredited lenders

Today the British Business Bank has announced that it has approved a new lender for accreditation to the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) and three new lenders for accreditation under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

JCB Finance will join the other 18 BBLS lenders who have been accredited since the scheme opened last month.

New CBILS lenders Arbuthnot Commercial ABL, Shire Leasing, and Silicon Valley Bank will also be able to provide financial support to smaller businesses across the UK that are losing revenue and seeing their cashflow disrupted, as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak.

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

Keith Morgan, CEO, British Business Bank, said: “Our accredited lenders have seen an incredible demand for Covid-19 business loan schemes since they became available. Accrediting these additional 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.”

Government published statistics show more than 745,000 businesses have to date[1] benefitted from over £31 billion in loans and guarantees to support their cashflow during the crisis through schemes delivered by the British Business Bank. This includes 45,843 facilities worth £8.9bn through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, and 699,354 facilities worth £21.2bn through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme.

The accelerated accreditation process the British Business Bank has put in place for coronavirus schemes means it has been able to increase the number of lenders on the CBILS scheme by 98% since the scheme’s launch, increasing the number from 41 to more than 80.

The Bank continues to review applications from a wide range of lender types – from PRA-regulated banks, to platform lenders, debt funds, invoice finance lenders, asset finance lenders and responsible finance lenders.

[1] Latest figures published by HMT, 2 May 2020

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The following lenders have been newly accredited under different variants of the CBIL scheme:

LenderCBILS variantCBILS offer
Arbuthnot Commercial ABLInvoice Finance / Term LoansArbuthnot Commercial ABL can provide Invoice Finance from £1m to SMEs and lower mid‐market corporates across the UK. The minimum total facilities of £1m includes the CBILS loan alongside an Invoice Discounting facility.
Shire LeasingTerm Loans / Asset FinanceShire Leasing PLC can provide Asset Finance (including Sale and Leaseback/ Sale and HP Back) from £25,000 to £200,000 and Term Loans from £50,001 to £100,000, (initially to existing SME customers only, but with a view to new customers).
Silicon Valley BankTerm LoansSilicon Valley Bank’s UK Branch can provide term loans (£500k - £5m) to existing clients operating within the innovation and life sciences sectors.

About the British Business Bank

The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to make finance markets for smaller businesses work more effectively, enabling those businesses to prosper, grow and build UK economic activity. Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.

The British Business Bank programmes are supporting more than £7.2bn of finance to over 93,000 smaller businesses (as at end of September 2019).

As well as increasing both supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of the finance options available to smaller businesses:

  • The Business Finance Guide (published in partnership with the ICAEW and a further 21 business and finance organisations) impartially sets out the range of finance options available to businesses at all stages – from start-ups to SMEs and growing mid-sized companies. Businesses can take the interactive journey at thebusinessfinanceguide.co.uk.
  • The British Business Bank Finance Hub provides independent and impartial information to high-growth businesses about their finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success. The new site also features case studies and learnings from real businesses to guide businesses through the process of applying for growth finance.

As the holding company of the group operating under the trading name of British Business Bank, British Business Bank plc is wholly owned by HM Government and is not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The British Business Bank operates under its own brand name through a number of subsidiaries, none of which are authorised and regulated by the FCA.

British Business Bank plc and its principal operating subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. A complete legal structure chart for British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries can be found on the British Business Bank plc website.