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British Business Bank added new accredited lenders to CBILS including Starling Bank & OakNorth Bank.

Over the weekend you will have seen the British Business Bank (BBB) announced that it has approved four new lenders for accreditation under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) – The Co-operative Bank, Cynergy Bank, OakNorth Bank and Starling Bank.

 

Keith Morgan, CEO, British Business Bank, said:Our accredited lenders have seen an incredible demand for CBILS in the past few weeks, so we are helping to meet that demand and provide even more choice for smaller businesses by approving additional lenders for accreditation to the scheme. These new lenders will be able to deploy vital funding and get additional finance flowing to smaller businesses across the UK as quickly as possible.”

 

Ben Barbanel, Head of Debt Finance, OakNorth Bank, said: “Our experience working with the BBB has been very positive – they’ve been very supportive through the entire process. We’re excited to be onboarded to the scheme and look forward to supporting UK growth businesses through CBILS in the days and weeks ahead. We’ve been allocated £50m by the BBB, so will be using this to support our existing customers who’ve been patiently waiting. We’ll look to onboard new customers in the coming weeks if we get allocated more capital.”

While OakNorth will use the funding for their existing customers, Starling Bank has access to many more small businesses and a simple sign up procedure based on a customer centric app. The Fintech Times spoke to Starling Bank earlier today about how  they are working tirelessly to get their application systems up and running for their customers as soon as possible.

Helen Bierton, Chief Banking Officer at Starling Bank, said: “Since we were accredited as a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme lender on Friday we have been working closely with the British Business Bank to ensure that we are in a position to give our business customers the financial support they need. We know that for some companies, timing is everything, therefore we want to be in position to allow people to apply for this loan as soon as possible.” 

 

The Fintech Times has been promoting the inclusion of fintechs in the UK Government’s business support efforts, this first step, with the inclusion of fintech lenders is welcomed.

But is it enough? As we discussed in our recent webinar, the volume of funding required is larger than any measures used previously and new processes and procedures will need to be used to get the funding to the businesses that need it the most.

Can fintech save the UK Economy by lending to small businesses? #FintechSavesUK

Author

  • Editorial Director of the The Fintech Times

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