iwoca approved for accreditation under CBILS
The lender will be able to offer loans of up to £250,000 to UK SMEs.
iwoca, one of Europe’s largest small business lenders, has been approved today by the British Business Bank to join the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).
Existing iwoca customers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic will be able to apply for finance under the scheme from this week, followed by new customers.
Under the lender’s CBILS conditions, small businesses will be able to access loans of between £50,001 and £250,000. There will be no interest (for the business owner) or capital repayments for the first 12 months and no personal guarantee on the loan.
Co-founder and CEO of iwoca, Christoph Rieche, said: “Britain’s small businesses will be playing a front and centre role in getting our economy back on track. From today we’ll be able to support this effort and give small businesses much needed access to funding so that they can manage cash flow gaps, stay afloat and prepare for the future.
“We will work alongside the largest banks to serve as many small businesses as possible to ensure they can navigate through this crisis. My message to the CEOs of the banks is one of collaboration – we should all be working together to process applications so that we get the job done for small businesses as fast as possible.
“We’ll only achieve the best result for small businesses if we work together and adapt,” he continued. “The fintech community has the ability to scale fast and as a group we have already supported over 400,000 small and micro businesses with finance, representing 30% of all SME lending.
“Our accreditation is a step in the right direction, but there’s more that can be done. We’ll continue to work closely with the government, the British Business Bank and other banks to make these schemes work for small businesses. As a non-bank lender, we do not have access to financing from the Bank of England. During this unprecedented time, the government needs to go one step further to level the playing field between banks and non-banks so that we can deliver on their commitment to save Britain’s small businesses.”
iwoca joins fellow non-bank lenders, Liberis and Tide, who were last week accredited into the CBIL scheme and the Bounce Back Loan scheme, respectively.
