Ultimate Finance added to CBILS by British Business Bank

By Bridging Loan Directory 6th May 2020

Specialist asset-based lender Ultimate Finance is today announcing that it has been approved for accreditation to the government backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) by the British Business Bank.

The accreditation will allow Ultimate Finance to help close the funding gap faced by SMEs by providing CBILS term loans of £50,001 to £500,000, alongside invoice finance facilities of up to £5m for both existing clients and new borrowers.

The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, delivered through 50+ British Business Bank accredited lenders, is designed to support the continued provision of finance to UK smaller businesses (SMEs) during the Covid-19 outbreak. The scheme enables lenders to provide facilities of up to £5m to smaller businesses across the UK who are experiencing lost or deferred revenues, leading to disruptions to their cashflow.

It supports a wide range of business finance products, including term loans, overdrafts, invoice finance and asset finance facilities.

The company currently works with more than 2,500 businesses across the UK and expects to be operationally ready to begin taking new applications from next week. CBILS loans will be provided to new and existing invoice finance clients and will not be offered standalone, with detailed eligibility criteria provided ahead of launch.

Josh Levy, pictured, CEO, Ultimate Finance, says:

“Having provided over £1.6bn of funding in 2019, our people-led, technology enabled onboarding and decision-making processes will support UK SMEs with quick access to finance at this difficult time. Having worked closely with the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers on our offering, we look forward to working with our strong network of introducers to provide prompt and effective funding to their clients under CBILS.

We see the combination of term loans with invoice finance as a powerful support package for businesses, providing both immediate cashflow help and then the flexible working capital necessary to rebuild as business conditions recover. Financial resilience and liquidity are equally as important through survival and recovery, and we are encouraging businesses to plan ahead for the full range of cashflow and working capital challenges as we emerge from this period.”

John Lightfoot, Head of Client Service, Ultimate Finance, says:

“We pride ourselves on our service quality and speed of delivery, with our model of a national presence with a regional footprint strengthening the support we are able to give to clients. We are pleased to have a new mechanism to provide additional funding to our clients through these tough trading conditions and look forward to working with many new businesses to assist them with their survival, recovery and growth.”

Paul Goodman, Chair of the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) adds:

“We were delighted to be able to support Josh and the Ultimate Finance team whilst they worked to become CBILS accredited. They have a well-established record of partnering with the intermediary community and NACFB’s Members look forward to maintaining this relationship through the Government loan scheme. Ultimate’s ability to offer additional funding through CBILS is a welcome addition to the toolkit of support that NACFB members are providing to borrowers across the UK.”