The British Business Bank has approved four new lenders for accreditation under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

The Co-operative Bank, Cynergy Bank, OakNorth Bank and Sterling Bank will soon be confirming the dates from which they will be ready to start receiving CBILS applications from smaller businesses across the UK.

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 £5 million to smaller businesses across the UK who are experiencing lost or deferred revenues.

More than 80% of the UK’s smaller businesses have a finance relationship with the 40-plus existing CBILS accredited lenders. The British Business Bank aims to accelerate the onboarding of new lenders to extend the scheme’s reach.

The Bank is currently reviewing applications from a wide range of lender types – from PRA-regulated banks, to platform lenders, debt funds, invoice finance lenders, asset finance and responsible finance lenders.

Keith Morgan, chief executive officer of British Business Bank, comments: “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.”

Further information on applying for CBILS can be found on the British Business Bank website.