The financial technology industry in Britain is racing to do whatever needed to complete the coronavirus business relief measure by the government. They are willing to offer quick loans to aid the needy and help businesses who are struggling to find a financial foothold during the global crisis of the Coronavirus outbreak.
Many top fintech organizations from the country have been pushing for approval and accreditation to be capable of providing quick relief loans to businesses under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS). These approvals are being looked for from the British Business Bank (BBB) which is backed by the state.
BBB has approved new digital lenders like OakNorth, Funding Circle, and Starling in the recent weeks, but previously only 40 banks were accepted to the program. These 40 banks included HSBC, Lloyds, RBS, and Barclay, the major lenders from the high street.
Helen Bierton, the chief banking officer at Starling Bank stated that the new fintechs have a real opportunity in this situation as these companies are built with the focus on providing quick solutions to the customers and are led by technology. They wouldn’t have to rewire because they are set that way.
Few of the major lenders have faced criticism for being too slow in processing and approving the loans. As a matter of fact, only 21% of CBILS loan applications were approved in the last week as per the Bank Trade Associations UK Finance.
Another new lender, OakNorth’s head of debt finance, Ben Barbanel mentioned that it is no surprise that these banks are lacking in speed and turnaround as they have always struggled with it, at the same time he also sympathizes with them because it involves a lot of risk.
These firms are still not functional in CBILS loan processing as they still have to undergo a legal and operational set up with the big bank, BBB.
Fintech companies should be allowed to contribute to relief measures during the crisis as they were born out of the last credit crunch, said Stocker. The statement is relatively appropriate and should be put to implementation. To know more about such news from the fintech companies and their ongoing from across the world, follow the fintechbuzz. Fintechbuzz delivers high-quality content in the form of articles, news, information, etc. on its site like clockwork.
