News

British Business Bank accredits new lender to Bounce Back Loan Scheme

  • Metro Bank accredited to the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS)

Friday, 29 May 2020: Today the British Business Bank has announced that it has approved a new lender for accreditation to the Bounce Back Loan Scheme for small business across the UK. The scheme is intended to target small and micro businesses in all sectors[1], with loans from £2k up to 25% of the business’ turnover with a maximum loan of £50k.

Metro Bank will join the other 17 lenders accredited to the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) in providing 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.

Metro Bank intends to start lending under the scheme as soon as possible and will keep customers updated on when they are ready to receive applications from smaller businesses across the UK.

Keith Morgan, CEO, British Business Bank, said: “The Bounce Back Loan Scheme has already helped over 608,000 businesses access loans worth £18.4 billion. As our onboarding continues at pace, accrediting Metro as a new lender will mean that more smaller businesses across the UK will be able to access the finance they need to get through the current pandemic.”

The Bounce Back Loan Scheme has previously accredited 17 lenders. These are AIB, Bank of Ireland UK, Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Clydesdale Bank & Yorkshire Bank, Danske Bank, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, NatWest, Santander, Skipton Business Finance, Starling Bank, The Co-operative Bank, Tide, TSB, RBS and Ulster Bank.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Covid-19 Loan Schemes

Bounce Back Loans Scheme (BBLS)

BBLS is a demand-led scheme offering lending that targets small and micro businesses, providing loans from £2k up to 25% of the business’ turnover with a maximum loan of £50k. Providing lenders with a 100% government-backed guarantee, the standardised application form means a faster process with many loans becoming available within days.

The Bounce Back Loans Scheme enables businesses to obtain a six-year term loan at a government set interest rate of 2.5% a year. The government will cover interest payable in the first year.

Information on eligibility criteria and how to apply can be found on the British Business Bank website.

Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS)

CBILS is delivered through more than 60 British Business Bank accredited lenders, and is designed to support the continued provision of finance to UK smaller businesses (SMEs) during the Covid-19 outbreak.

CBILS is a demand-led scheme offering lending to smaller businesses with turnover of up to £45m. The scheme supports a wide range of business finance products, including term loans, overdrafts, invoice finance and asset finance facilities. Invoice finance and asset finance facilities are available from £1k to £5m, while term loan and revolving credit facilities are available from £50k to £5m (the lower limit for these has increased from £1k following the introduction of BBLS). The government makes a payment to cover interest and lender-levied fees under CBILS for the first 12 months.

Detailed information on CBILS can be found on the British Business Bank website.

Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loans Scheme (CLBILS)

CLBILS is a demand led scheme targeted at larger businesses with a turnover of more than £45m. It offers term loans, revolving credit facilities, invoice finance and asset finance. The maximum amount available through CLBILS to a borrower and its group has been increased from £50m to £200m. Term loans and revolving credit facilities over £50m will be offered by CLBILS lenders which have secured additional accreditation. The maximum size for invoice finance and asset finance facilities remains at £50m.

Companies borrowing more than £50m through CLBILS will be subject to further restrictions on dividend payments, senior pay and share buy-backs during the period of the loan.

Future Fund

The Future Fund will support the UK’s innovative businesses currently affected by Covid-19. These businesses have been unable to access other government business support programmes, such as CBILS, because they are either pre-revenue or pre-profit and typically rely on equity investment. The scheme will deliver an initial commitment of £250m of new government funding through convertible loan notes which will be unlocked by private investment on a match funded basis. The government scheme, which will be developed in partnership with the British Business Bank with the intention of launching for applications in May, will initially be open until the end of September.

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.

As at 30 September 2019, British Business Bank programmes were supporting more than £7.2bn of finance to over 93,000 smaller businesses.

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.

[1] Credit institutions (falling within the remit of the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive), public sector bodies, a state -funded primary or secondary schools and insurance companies are not eligible to apply and subject to State-Aid restrictions.