SME borrowing

Small firms borrow over £18bn under government scheme A total of £27.5bn in emergency lending has been provided to more than 650,000 businesses by banks, according to Treasury figures. Over £18bn was borrowed by SMEs through the government-guaranteed Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), while the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) has lent £8.15bn so far. Lenders have approved around 50% of loan applications under CBILS so far, while the BBLS scheme has an approval rate of 79%. The figures were published as research from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Corporate Finance Network found that one in four companies claim to be unable to access enough cash to survive another two weeks of lockdown.