The £9m of lending was principally in the north of England.
Bridging lender Fiduciam lent over £9m over Easter week alone and has targeted another £10m of loans by the end of April.
The £9m of lending was principally in the north of England, at an average of 55% LTV with an average monthly interest rate of 0.70% per month.
There are clear operational challenges to get transactions to complete because of the lockdown, but Fiduciam has been working collaboratively with other organisations and most operational issues have been successfully overcome.
For instance, Fiduciam is working together with RICS valuers and surveyors who still can visit premises. The lack of flights is being overcome in cross-border transactions by having staff spread out geographically and by working closely with trusted local partners.
All of Fiduciam’s employees are working as normal but remotely.
Johan Groothaert (pictured), CEO of Fiduciam said, “We have seen many short-term lenders close their doors and this is a pity because it is today they are needed most, especially when lending to businesses.
"We are very concerned that the general lack of credit for SMEs will exacerbate the crisis, in fact it may be worse than the direct COVID-19 implications for many SMEs.
“We have, for instance, been approached by a health care SME that needed an urgent loan to fit out a new facility, with an agreed contract to provide beds to the NHS, but who had been unable to get finance. How is this possible?
“I am glad that Fiduciam’s diversified institutional funding model has proven to work during this crisis and we are grateful to our institutional partners for keeping their commitment to helping to fund small businesses and entrepreneurs in these difficult times.”
