Credit Cards & Loans
Nearly 70,000 Bounce Back loans worth £2bn approved on day one of scheme
More than 69,000 ‘Bounce Back’ loans aimed at helping small businesses survive the coronavirus crisis were approved on the scheme’s first day, the government has confirmed.
The total value of the approved loans, which are available via banks, was over £2bn, chancellor Rishi Sunak said.
The seven largest lenders – Barclays, Danske, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS, Santander and Virgin Money – said they received more than 130,000 applications on the first day of the scheme (4 May).
The scheme allows small firms and sole traders to apply for a 100% state-backed loan of between £2,000 and £50,000, capped at 25% of a company’s turnover.
No interest or repayments are due for the first 12 months.
After 12 months, all banks will charge a fixed annual interest rate of 2.5%.
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Sunak said: “Small businesses will be the driving force of our recovery from the pandemic, creating jobs and securing economic growth.
“These loans will help them bounce back from this crisis – getting money fast – so it’s great to see more than 70,000 business benefitting in just the first day.
“It’s vital this speedy progress continues in the days and weeks ahead.”
The Bounce Back Loan scheme is one part of the government’s package of business support that includes £8bn to pay the wages of furloughed staff at 800,000 firms, nearly 700,000 business properties benefiting from £8.6bn of business grants, VAT deferrals and scrapping businesses rates.