Linked Finance launches ‘Beyond Brexit’ loans for Irish SMEs
IRISH peer-to-peer lender Linked Finance has debuted its new ‘Beyond Brexit’ loan for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ireland who are in the process of preparing for Brexit.
The loans will cover an 18-month period and will offer working capital facilities of up to €300,000 (£267,500). This is a longer than usual repayment period for Linked Finance, which typically offers 11-12 month facilities to its borrowers.
The lender said that the new loans are intended to help Irish businesses manage their cash flow and acquire additional stock ahead of the 31 October Brexit deadline.
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“Many of the businesses we work with are putting additional working capital in place now,” said Niall Dorrian, chief executive of Linked Finance. “The logic being that it’s easier to access credit today before any Brexit-related challenges have taken their toll on cash flow.
“With the UK political situation changing day by day Irish businesses will continue to hope for the best, but it would be prudent to prepare for the worst.”
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Linked Finance is Ireland’s largest P2P lending platform and specialises in small business loans for Irish SMEs. It has made a number of changes to “support homegrown SMEs as they continue to trade through this period of great national uncertainty.” Recently, the platform announced a range of rate reductions across the platform, reducing the interest rates on its loans by as much as 0.55 per cent.
“Linked Finance is committed to helping Irish SMEs rise to any challenges that Brexit might bring,” added Dorrian. “These loans and our recent rate reductions are just two of the ways that we will continue to support the great local businesses that form the backbone of our economy as they navigate these uncertain times.”
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