COVID-19 SUPPORT: Daily Update – Thursday 16 April 2020
Key Contact: Christian Farrow
Author: Elena Visser
The Emergency Loan Scheme needs “more work” according to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB)
It has been estimated that more than £1.1 billion has been leant so far to SME’s through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS). Lenders have received around 28,460 formal applications to the scheme from businesses, with an excess of 6,000 of these applications approved and the others being processed.
Total lending under the scheme has grown by £700 million in the last week, an increase of 150%. Rishi Sunak said that this “upward trajectory” needed to be maintained the support the economy and jobs during the pandemic.
Yesterday, the FSB said that more work is needed to make the emergency loans a success. Whilst one in five formal CBILS applications are approved, the major banks claim their approval rates for standard commercial loans are many times higher than that and the difficulty of securing loans from accredited banks has been highlighted. The FSB has said that its members have claimed that its difficult to get to the formal application stage and banks are slow to respond to any enquiries.
The FSB has asked for reassurances that the fast-track process that was promised for certain loans worth under £30,000 is working and has stated that detailed data on micro business applications would be helpful.
Please see our daily updated Financial Support Guide for Businesses for further information- COVID-19 FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR BUSINESSES
For more information on any of the points raised, please contact our corporate team.
