This equates to around £126 million of repaid lending under the scheme
Small business lender Fiduciam has announced that over 75% of its CBILS loans to businesses affected by COVID-19 have now been fully repaid, with no defaults having occurred.
CBILS, or the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme by the British Business Bank, was designed to support the continued provision of finance to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) across the UK during the pandemic.
The scheme enabled lenders to provide facilities of up to £5 million to smaller businesses who were experiencing lost or deferred revenues, leading to disruptions to their cashflow. Over the duration of the scheme, 109,877 loan facilities were approved for a total £26.39 billion.
Fiduciam was accredited for CBILS by the British Business Bank in July 2020. The first Fiduciam CBILS facility was drawn just one month later, and, by November 2020, the SME lender has completed over £22 million of loans to housebuilders under the scheme.
Funds were advanced to businesses throughout the UK and across a broad range of sectors, including – aside from housebuilders – hotels, restaurants, wedding venues, nurseries, specialist engineering companies, and office and retail space operators.
The 75% of CBILS loans already redeemed equates to around £126 million of repaid lending.
Fiduciam said the remaining CBILS loan book is “performing well and borrowers have been punctual with interest payments.”
“It is easy to forget what horrible state the economy was in during the first 12 months of the pandemic,” Johan Groothaert (pictured), chief executive at Fiduciam, commented. “Many of the SMEs that approached us found themselves in serious financial and operational difficulties.
“Our accreditation by the British Business Bank for CBILS allowed us to help them get through this very challenging trading environment. Without CBILS, many of those SMEs would not have survived the pandemic, as the liquidity generating efforts by the central banks were taking too much time to trickle down.”
Groothaert added that it was rewarding to assist a variety of businesses suffering from short-term cashflow difficulties, and enable them to support future growth and employment.
“Given that to date, we have not called on the government guarantee, but have been paying a considerable premium for it, this has been a win-win for all,” he said. “So far, our dataset shows the absence of adverse selection. This observation underscores that well managed government guarantees in times of extreme crisis can be a very efficient tool for protecting the economy.”
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