"Whilst central bank initiatives typically do not reach the SME segment, CBILS does, providing these businesses with an opportunity to weather the crisis."
Fiduciam became an accredited CBILS lender two and a half months ago on the 22nd of July. It says the number of requests has increased towards the end of last month as the original 30th September deadline approached. On Thursday 24th September, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak extended the scheme by a further two months until 30th November.
Delivered through British Business Bank accredited lenders, CBILS is designed to support the continued provision of finance to 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 have ranged from automotive firms to children’s nurseries and from hotels to housebuilders.
Johan Groothaert, CEO of Fiduciam, commented: “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.”
