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

Investec will join the other 20 BBLS lenders who have been accredited since the scheme opened last month.

New CBILS lenders 4Syte, Asset Finance Partners, JCB Finance, Merchant Money, Sonovate and United Trust 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 continue to see high levels of demand for Covid-19 business loan schemes. 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 913,000 businesses have to date^[1] benefitted from over £38 billion in loans and guarantees through schemes delivered by the British Business Bank. This includes 863,584 Bounce Back Loans worth £26.3 billion, 49,247 loans worth over £10.1 billion through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and £1.7 billion through the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme.

The accelerated accreditation process the British Business Bank has put in place for the coronavirus loan schemes means it has been able to more than double the number of CBILS lenders since the scheme’s launch, increasing the number from 41 to 92.

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.