Over the course of the past few months we’ve been talking a lot regarding the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), and now, with the deadline having been extended until the end of January, I thought it was more important than ever to provide an update.

The CBIL scheme was launched on 23 March 2020, in order to support small and medium-sized businesses that were losing revenue and seeing their cash flow disrupted due to the Covid-19 outbreak. HM Treasury (HMT) started publishing management information on 10 May and, between then and their most recent update on 15 November 2020, they’ve seen the number of applications rise from 64,531 to 173,556, lending increase from £6.09bn to £18.46bn over the period, and have supported an incredible 77,909 businesses.

Here at InterBay Asset Finance, we’ve processed a staggering number of applications and we don’t see that easing up over the next month. As mentioned earlier, the deadline has been extended to 31 January 2021 and if you’ve not started an application for the CBIL scheme by the end of the day on 31 January 2021, you won’t be eligible for CBILS financing.

During this challenging time, we see many businesses being driven by entrepreneurs with the emotional commitment, creativity and determination to innovate and succeed. Here at InterBay Asset Finance, our team is doing everything they can to support, finance, and help our brokers and businesses and want to see every business that meets the eligibility criteria benefit from this excellent scheme.

The below graph details the CBILS statistics published by HMT.

Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS)¹