Rishi Sunak ‘to extend emergency Covid business loan schemes’ December 17, 2020 Chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to extend the UK’s £68bn coronavirus emergency loan schemes to help support businesses hit with the double whammy of Covid and Brexit, according to reports. Officials are drawing up plans to extend the three main loan guarantee schemes, including the government’s £43.5bn coronavirus bounce back loans programme, the Financial Times [...]
Don’t make us pay national insurance for furloughed staff, say struggling businesses November 27, 2020 Business groups representing hospitality, retail and leisure businesses have united to urge the government to provide sector specific support for fear of going bust due to higher tier restrictions. The groups, which have launched a ‘Bounce Back Better’ campaign to urge the government to provide them support, have asked for National Insurance payments to be [...]
Can asset management’s Covid-19 response help regain public trust? November 27, 2020 The tenth anniversary of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) back in 2018 sparked a deluge of articles recalling the days the financial system stared into the abyss. They questioned just how close we came to complete collapse, but also whether it could happen again. Had anything changed in the decade that followed? From some perspectives [...]
Treasury rebuffs calls from City banks for help chasing bad debts from Covid loans November 20, 2020 Treasury rebuffs calls from City banks for help chasing bad debts from Covid loans
Government-backed Covid loans swell to £65.5bn November 19, 2020 The government has given banks guarantees on £65.48bn of lending to businesses hit by the coronavirus via the Bounce Back Loan scheme. According to the latest finance ministry data, the biggest part of the lending was to small businesses, for which banks received a 100% state guarantee on £42.18bn of loans that have been made. [...]
The schemes supporting businesses through winter November 19, 2020 When the first wave of Covid-19 struck the UK in March, many businesses feared the worst as they closed their doors. With the help of a number of UK Government schemes, however, most firms avoided the worst of what could have happened. The suite of measures, ranging from emergency loan support to the heralded furlough [...]
Government extends coronavirus business loans ahead of Thursday’s England lockdown November 3, 2020 The government has extended applications for its coronavirus business support loan schemes ahead of England entering a second lockdown on Thursday.
Natwest returns to profit as virus loan charges fall October 30, 2020 Natwest returned to profit during the third quarter, reporting forecast-beating earnings after setting aside a smaller-than-expected sum to deal with bad loans due to the coronavirus pandemic. Natwest posted an operating profit before tax of £355m for the three months to September on an income of £1.9bn. The figure beat the bank-compiled analyst estimates of [...]
FSB: banks must ‘step up’ support for new Bounce Back Loan applications October 30, 2020 The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has called for the government to introduce further support measures and for banks to “step up” to ensure small businesses can access the financing they need. The organisation said it was “particularly concerned” by the number of small businesses that were struggling to access government-backed Bounce Back Loans (BBLs) [...]
Exclusive: MPs call for clarity on Bounce Back Loan replacement as lenders shut door on SMEs October 28, 2020 An influential group of cross-party MPs has called for the government to replace the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) as soon as possible after lenders shut the door on new applicants for the state-backed coronavirus funding. All but one of the 28 banks eligible to lend money under the scheme have closed to new customers, [...]