New lenders include Assetz Capital, Atom bank, Ebury, Fleximize, Investec, Social Investment Business, Tower Leasing, Ultimate Finance and White Oak UK.

This brings the total number of CBILS lenders to over 60 and follows four which were approved last week (ThinCats, Paragon Bank, Independent Growth Finance and Allied Irish Bank) and SME finance provider 1pm, which was accredited yesterday.

CBILS lenders can 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.

Who are the lenders?

Following their approval, each lender will put in place the operations required to start lending under the scheme and will shortly confirm the dates from which they will be ready to start receiving applications.

“The British Business Bank continues to help meet the incredible demand for CBILS by approving additional lenders for accreditation to the scheme, and provide even more choice for smaller businesses in need as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak,” said Keith Morgan, CEO at the British Business Bank.

“These nine newly accredited lenders for CBILS will be able to deploy vital funding and get additional finance flowing to smaller businesses across the UK as quickly as possible.”

Assetz Capital announced that SMEs can apply for one of its CBILS loans if they require property development funds or a commercial mortgage.

Stuart Law, CEO at Assetz Capital, stated that the accreditation by the British Business Bank would help it to “carry some of the weight” of supporting the country’s great small businesses and housebuilders during this difficult time.
 
“We are passionate about supporting SMEs and, since we founded the company back in 2013, we have been working diligently to help fill the funding gap to those companies. 

“As a marketplace lender, we are funded by a portfolio of institutions as well as tens of thousands of retail investors.
 
“CBILS, necessarily, will only be funded by institutional investors and these currently include UK and European banks, specialist credit funds and our dedicated institutional investment fund.
 
“We look forward to originating and managing these new loans for those institutional investors as the country begins its journey to recovery over coming months.”

Specialist lender Ultimate Finance currently works with over 2,500 businesses across the UK and expects to be operationally ready to begin taking new applications from next week.

CBILS loans will be provided to new and existing invoice finance clients and will not be offered standalone, with detailed eligibility criteria to be provided ahead of launch.

•   Will the bridging and development markets start looking like they did 10 years ago due to Covid-19?
•   Another lender approved under CBILS
•   Four new lenders approved under CBILS

Josh Levy, CEO at Ultimate Finance, commented: “Having provided over £1.6bn of funding in 2019, our people-led, technology-enabled onboarding and decision-making processes will support UK SMEs with quick access to finance at this difficult time.
 
“We see the combination of term loans with invoice finance as a powerful support package for businesses, providing both immediate cashflow help and then the flexible working capital necessary to rebuild as business conditions recover.”

Atom — which has continued to offer loans during the crisis — hopes to be in a position to accept CBILS applications “shortly”.

David Castling, director of intermediary at Atom, explained that it truly valued the relationships it had with its brokers in the UK and welcomed their support once again as it tries to get cash out to firms when they need it most.

“We’re here to help our brokers,” he said, “and our team of BDMs are on hand if they have any questions and to help with any CBILS queries.”

Andy Davies, managing director of leases and loans at non-bank business finance provider White Oak UK, added that it was delighted to be part of the scheme.

“White Oak UK has always worked hard to understand the financial challenges faced by small- and medium-sized businesses, and to deliver solutions to meet these head on. 

“We’ve built our business on the provision of fast and effective funding, and our CBILS offering is no different.”

The business has also developed an online eligibility checker which will be available via its website early next week, enabling business owners to check core CBILS eligibility and give an indication to borrowers as to whether their application is likely to be successful.

Last month, Fleximize launched its newly designed Covid-19 essential business growth loan to provide funding to essential businesses that continue to trade during the crisis.

Peter Tuvey, co-founder and CEO of Fleximize, stated: “Fleximize has a track record of adapting its offering to support the changing needs of UK businesses.
 
"We’re working hard to adapt our processes so that we can start offering support under CBILS as soon as possible.”
Since the CBILS launch, the bank has announced 22 new delivery partners to join the original 41 lenders — an increase of 54%. 

Finance provider Business Enterprise Fund (BEF) announced today it had provided over £5m in CBILS support — helping 144 businesses and saving 720 jobs — and completed its fastest loan under the scheme in five working days.
BEF CEO Stephen Waud said: “I’m proud our of response to the challenge of supporting businesses with much needed working capital. 

“Our team of 21 have worked hard to deliver £5m of CBILS support to businesses across the North and as far south as Oxford and Orpington.”

Other Covid-19 loan structures include the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) — which was introduced yesterday — where small businesses can apply for loans of up to £50,000, and the government will cover the cost of any fees and interest for the borrower in the first 12 months.

The Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) is also available for larger businesses with a turnover of more than £45m. 

In addition, the Future Fund will support the UK’s innovative businesses currently affected by the outbreak, and which have been unable to access other government business support programmes, such as CBILS, because they are either pre-revenue or pre-profit and typically rely on equity investment.