News

British Business Bank announces new lenders under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme

  • The Co-operative Bank, Cynergy Bank, OakNorth Bank and Starling Bank to join 40+ existing accredited lenders
  •  Arkle Finance, Close Brothers and Secure Trust Bank, recently accredited under the Enterprise Finance Guarantee, now accredited under CBILS
  • Coutts accredited for CBILS as part of RBS Group’s existing accreditation

Today the British Business Bank has announced that it has approved four new lenders for accreditation under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) – The Co-operative Bank, Cynergy Bank, OakNorth Bank and Starling Bank.

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 CBILS applications from smaller businesses across the UK.

More than 80% of the UK’s smaller businesses have a finance relationship with the 40+ existing CBILS accredited lenders. The British Business Bank is accelerating the onboarding of new lenders to further extend the scheme’s reach and has significantly increased the size of its accreditation team to manage the volume of interest.

The Bank is reviewing 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.

Keith Morgan, CEO, 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.

About the scheme

The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, delivered through 40+ British Business Bank accredited lenders, is designed to support the continued provision of finance to UK smaller businesses (SMEs) during the Covid-19 outbreak. The scheme enables lenders to provide facilities of up to £5m to smaller businesses across the UK who are experiencing lost or deferred revenues, leading to disruptions to their cashflow.

The scheme supports a wide range of business finance products, including term loans, overdrafts, invoice finance and asset finance facilities.

Scheme features

  • Up to £5m facility: The maximum value of a facility provided under the scheme is £5m, available on repayment terms of up to six years.
  • No guarantee fee for SMEs to access the scheme: No fee for smaller businesses. Lenders will pay a fee to access the scheme.
  • Interest and fees paid by Government for 12 months: The Government will make a Business Interruption Payment to cover the first 12 months of interest payments and any lender-levied fees[1], so smaller businesses will benefit from no upfront costs and lower initial repayments[2].
  • Finance terms: Finance terms are up to six years for term loans and asset finance facilities. For overdrafts and invoice finance facilities, terms will be up to three years.
  • 80% guarantee: The scheme provides the lender with a government-backed, partial guarantee (80% gross) against the outstanding facility balance, subject to an overall cap per lender.
  • No personal guarantees for facilities under £250k: Personal guarantees of any form cannot be taken under the scheme for any facilities below £250k.
  • Personal guarantees for facilities above £250k: Personal guarantees may still be required, at a lender’s discretion, but recoveries under these are capped at a maximum of 20% of the outstanding balance of the CBILS facility after the proceeds of business assets have been applied. A Principal Private Residence (PPR) cannot be taken as security to support a personal guarantee or as security for a CBIL backed facility.
  • Security: For all facilities, including those over £250,000, CBILS can now support lending to smaller businesses even where a lender considers there to be sufficient security, making more smaller businesses eligible to receive the business interruption payment[3].
  • The borrower always remains 100% liable for the debt.

New eligibility criteria

Smaller businesses from all sectors[4] can apply for the full amount of the facility. To be eligible for a facility under CBILS, a smaller business must:

  • Be UK based in its business activity, with turnover of no more than £45m per year.
  • Have a borrowing proposal which, were it not for the current pandemic, would be considered viable by the lender.
  • Self-certify that it has been adversely impacted by the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

How to apply

CBILS is available through the British Business Bank’s 40+ accredited lenders and partners, which are listed on the British Business Bank website.

In the first instance, businesses should approach their own provider, ideally via the lender’s website. They may also consider approaching other lenders if they are unable to access the finance they need. Not every accredited lender can provide every type of finance available under CBILS.

[1] Following earlier discussions with the banking industry, some lenders indicated that they would not charge arrangement fees or early repayment charges to SMEs borrowing under the scheme. HM Government greatly appreciates this approach by lenders.
[2] Fishery, aquaculture and agriculture businesses may not qualify for the full interest and fee payment.
[3] Please note that where there is security available, it is likely that the lender will take such security in support of a CBILS facility
[4] The following are not eligible under CBILS: Banks, Insurers and Reinsurers (but not insurance brokers); public sector bodies, further educational establishments if they are grant funded and state funded primary and secondary schools.

ENDS

 

Further information

British Business Bank

Suzanna Jebbitt

Communications Manager

0207 898 5829 / 07827 552 301

Suzanna.Jebbitt@british-business-bank.co.uk

British Business Bank

Notes to Editors 

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

LenderCBILS variantCBILS offer
The Co-operative BankTerm Loans and OverdraftThe Co-operative Bank can provide term loans from £1k to £5m up to six years, and overdrafts from £1k to £5m up to three years to smaller businesses across the UK.
CouttsTerm LoansCoutts can provide loans from £25k up to the maximum allowed of £5m to support the businesses of its private clients.
Cynergy BankTerm Loans and OverdraftCynergy Bank can provide term loans and overdrafts from £1m to £5m to medium businesses across the UK.
OakNorth BankTerm LoansOakNorth Bank can provide term loans from £500k to £5 million to profitable, fast-growth businesses and established property developers across the UK.
Starling BankTerm Loans and OverdraftStarling Bank can provide term loans from £5k to £250k and overdrafts from £1k to £150k to smaller businesses across the UK.

The following lenders were accredited under the Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) scheme shortly before the launch of CBILS, and have been accredited under CBILS:

LenderCBILS variantCBILS offer
Arkle FinanceAsset FinanceArkle Finance provides asset finance from £5k to £250k to smaller businesses across the UK.
Close BrothersInvoice Finance and Term LoansClose Brothers Invoice Finance can offer loans of up to £5m to smaller businesses across the UK.
Secure Trust BankInvoice Finance and Term LoansSecure Trust Bank will support its clients across the UK by providing CBILS loans alongside their existing asset based lending facilities.

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.