Funding Circle, the small business loans platform, has today been approved for accreditation by the British Business Bank under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), term loan variant.

Funding Circle expects to open CBILS applications within the next week once it has completed the required legal and operational approvals with the Bank.

Keith Morgan, CEO, British Business Bank, said: “Our accredited lenders have seen an incredible demand for CBILS since the scheme became available. As the first newly accredited marketplace lending platform to be accredited under CBILS, Funding Circle will be able to provide more capacity, more choice and most importantly, vital funding for smaller businesses across the UK. This accreditation continues the British Business Bank’s long-term support for the growth of marketplace lending since its earliest stages.”

More than 80% of the UK’s smaller businesses have a finance relationship with CBILS accredited lenders. The British Business Bank is accelerating the onboarding of new lenders to further extend the scheme’s reach. 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.

Funding Circle is the largest online small business loan provider in the UK and has originated over £6.2 billion of loans to 57,000+ businesses.