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

Press release 06 May 2020

  • Assetz Capital, Atom bank, Ebury, Fleximize, Investec, Social Investment Business, Tower Leasing, Ultimate Finance and White Oak UK to join 50+ existing CBILS accredited lenders
  • Additional alternative finance lenders approved for accreditation
  • 22 new lenders announced since launch, increase of 54%

Today the British Business Bank has announced that it has approved nine new lenders for accreditation under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), bringing the total number of CBILS lenders to over 60.

New lenders Assetz Capital, Atom bank, Ebury, Fleximize, Investec, Social Investment Business, Tower Leasing, Ultimate Finance and White Oak UK, will 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.

The addition of these alternative finance lenders brings the total number of CBILS lenders to over 60, increasing the diversity of providers available to smaller businesses across the UK. Since the CBILS launch, the Bank has announced 22 new delivery partners to join the original 41 lenders, an increase of 54%.

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 CBILS’ 60+ accredited lenders. The British Business Bank is accelerating at pace the onboarding of new lenders to further extend the scheme’s reach.

The British Business Bank continues to help meet the incredible demand for CBILS by approving additional lenders for accreditation to the scheme, and provide even more choice for smaller businesses in need as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak. These nine newly accredited lenders for CBILS will be able to deploy vital funding and get additional finance flowing to smaller businesses across the UK as quickly as possible. Keith Morgan CEO, British Business Bank

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.

About the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme(CBILS)

The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, delivered through more than 60 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.

Detailed information on CBILS can be found on the British Business Bank website – Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

Notes to editors

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

LenderCBILS variantCBILS offer
Assetz CapitalTerm LoansAssetz Capital can provide property-secured loans from £50,001 (existing customers) / £250k (new customers) and up to £5m to support small businesses and property developers.
Atom bankTerm LoansAtom bank can provide term loans from £100k to £5m to smaller businesses across the UK.
EburyOverdraftsEbury provides revolving credit facilities from £50,001 to £5m to UK SMEs to facilitate international trade and supplier payments.
FleximizeTerm LoansFleximize can provide term loans from £50,001 to £500k to new and existing customers in the UK, excluding Scotland and Northern Ireland.
InvestecAsset Finance / Invoice Finance / Term LoansInvestec can provide term loans from £50,001 to £5 million for between 12 months and six years, asset finance from £5,000 to £5 million, and invoice finance from £100,000 to £5 million, to small and medium-sized businesses across the UK.
Social Investment BusinessTerm LoansSocial Investment Business can provide term loans from £100k to £500K to social enterprises and charities across the UK.
Tower LeasingTerm Loans / Asset FinanceTower Leasing can provide Asset Finance from £5,000 to £100,000 to SME’s throughout the UK.
Ultimate FinanceTerm Loans / Invoice FinanceUltimate Finance can provide term loans from £50,001 to £500k alongside an invoice finance facility of £200k - £5m to businesses nationally with a turnover of £1.5m and above.
White Oak UKTerm LoansWhite Oak UK can provide term loans from £50,001 to £5m to new and existing businesses across the UK.

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 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.

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