Today the British Business Bank announces that it has accredited the first batch of five lenders under the new iteration of the Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS).

The lenders – Bank of Scotland, Coventry & Warwickshire Reinvestment Trust (CWRT), Lloyds Bank, NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland – will be able to offer facilities of up to £2m for borrowers outside the scope of the Northern Ireland Protocol and up to £1m for those in the scope of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The scheme aims to improve the terms on offer to borrowers. It is designed to be used at the discretion of the lender where appropriate. If a lender can offer a commercial loan on better terms, they will do so.

The Bank continues to review applications from a wide range of lender types – from Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA)-regulated banks to platform lenders, debt funds, invoice finance lenders, asset finance lenders and responsible finance lenders.

Additional lenders will be added to the accredited lenders listing on the British Business Bank website once they are confirmed as participants in the scheme.

About the Recovery Loan Scheme

The new iteration of the Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS) is designed to support access to finance for UK businesses as they look to recover and grow.

Businesses can use finance for any legitimate business purpose – including managing cash flow, investment and growth. However, businesses must be able to afford to take out additional debt finance for these purposes. Earlier iterations of the scheme provided over £4.5bn of finance to smaller businesses between April 2021 and 30 June 2022.

The British Business Bank administers the scheme on behalf of the Secretary of State for BEIS.