Short-term lender Fiduciam expects to receive at least another £200 million of requests for Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) loans between now and the new scheme closure date of 30 November.
The institutionally funded provider has already received £430 million of loan requests since it became an accredited CBILS lender on 22 July. The number of requests then increased towards the end of last month as the original 30 September deadline approached. On 24 September, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak extended the scheme by a further two months until 30 November.
Delivered through British Business Bank accredited lenders, CBILS 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 types of borrowers and businesses applying to Fiduciam for CBILS loans are varied, which demonstrates the need for these loans across the whole spectrum of the economy. They have ranged from automotive firms to children’s nurseries and from hotels to housebuilders. All of the businesses are strong viable businesses that are just struggling to weather the current story of Covid-19, the lender said.
Johan Groothaert (pictured), CEO of Fiduciam, said: “We have already seen more than £430m in loan requests since we became an accredited CBILS lender in early July. As a result, we have reallocated a substantial amount of our resources to handle the CBILS application volumes. There has been an increase in applications the closer we got to the 30th September deadline, so the extension of CBILS to 30 November was both welcome and necessary with many businesses still facing financial difficulties.
“It is encouraging to see that most of the loan requests are of good quality. Many SMEs remain cash strapped whilst their business fundamentals are very strong. Whilst central bank initiatives typically do not reach the SME segment, CBILS does, providing these businesses with an opportunity to weather the crisis.
“With the Chancellor having extended the deadline for new CBILS applications by two months, we expect to receive a further £200 million in requests.”