First lenders revealed for RLS follow-on scheme
The first five lenders to be accredited under the new iteration of the Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS) have been announced by the British Business Bank (BBB).
Bank of Scotland, Coventry & Warwickshire Reinvestment Trust, Lloyds Bank, NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland have been authorised to offer loan facilities of up to £2m for borrowers outside the scope of the Northern Ireland Protocol, and up to £1m for those within.
The BBB said that it is still reviewing a number of applications from “a wide range of lender types”, including platform lenders, debt funds, invoice finance lenders, asset finance lenders and other alternative lenders.
Read more: RLS will relaunch in August for two years
The new RLS has been designed to support UK businesses as they recover from the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, and seek to grow.
Businesses can use their funding to manage cashflow, investment and growth. However, in order to qualify for RLS funding, they must be able to show that they can afford to take out additional debt financing for these purposes.
Read more: RLS delivered £4.5bn to UK businesses
The government will underwrite 70 per cent of the value of each loan and the annual rate of interest and fees cannot be more than 14.99 per cent.
Personal guarantees can be taken at the lender’s discretion, the state development bank said, but principal private residences cannot be taken as security within the scheme.
Read more: Details of updated Recovery Loan Scheme revealed