The government has extended the CBILS and Bounce Back Loan Schemes and also allowing businesses to top-up their Bounce Back Loan scheme if you didn’t take the full allocation.

We look at why you need to be careful if you plan to top-up your Bounce Back Loan

The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme has been revised to make more businesses eligible for CBILS. We look at how the changes could benefit businesses.

If you would prefer to listen to the podcast version you can click below or download to listen to later via our Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher or itunes channel.

We are a few days into the launch of the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme. How is it doing? Assessing progress, it’s very much work in progress.

If you would prefer to listen to the podcast version you can click below or download to listen to later via our Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher or itunes channel.

The finance market is ever-changing particularly among younger, more modern businesses who are shunning the traditional High Street banks in favour of alternative finance providers.

This the finding of survey of 512 small businesses carried out by ThinCats, a fintech lender to mid-sized SMEs.

The survey found that of businesses less than ten years old, only 32% would consider their bank to be their first port of call. This contrasts with businesses over 35 years old where 71% would default to their main bank. When it comes to working with an alternative finance provider, 23% of younger businesses are more likely to feel comfortable with this approach compared to 4% of the oldest SMEs.

Not surprisingly, where decision makers were aged under 35, 65% said a traditional High Street bank was not the first place they would go for funding. This contrasts with decision makers aged 55 and over, where it was just under 30%.

Sectors such as IT, telecoms and marketing, which are traditionally knowledge or service-based are those leading the way in moving towards alternative finance providers.

Worryingly, 30% of SMEs who were rejected by their first-choice lender, stopped searching for external funding altogether. This suggests that many businesses, of whom 55% said high street banks were the first lender approached, are potentially giving up when there are suitable alternatives available.

This demonstrates that more still needs to be done to highlight the range of alternative finance providers in the marketplace.

You can now listen to the podcast version of our weekly Business Finance Bulletin on Spotify.

As well as the latest episode you will also find previous podcasts going back 100 episodes. That should keep you busy!

Here’s the link to our Show Page…

We hope you enjoy listening to the latest small business finance news and tips.

The latest quarterly Credit Conditions Survey from the Bank of England for Quarter 3 2018 reveals that both bank and businesses appear to be adopting a cautious stance when to comes to lending and borrowing.

This quarterly survey of bank and building society lenders is to assist the Bank of England in understanding trends and developments in the banking sector. Lenders are asked about their experiences over the past three months and the coming three months in terms of lending to businesses of all sizes.
The Bank has reported that the overall amount of lender credit made available to businesses of all sizes was unchanged in Quarter 3. Within the total available finance, the availability of credit provided to small businesses was reported to have increased and was unchanged for medium and large businesses. So all appears well from the lender’s perspectives in the last Quarter.

However, the Bank’s monthly reporting of amount of credit taken by small businesses shows that the total amount of lending in the 12 months to August has essentially flat-lined this year. It seems that small businesses have limited appetite to borrow and not heeding the bank’s message that they have funds to lend.

Looking ahead to the next Quarter, this lack of appetite to borrow is reflected in lender’s view that the overall amount of credit they will make available in Quarter 4 is expected to decrease slightly.

Both borrowers and lenders seem to be battening down the hatches.

As well as concerns about the economy and the political situation, small businesses may also be wary of taking on additional debt due to concerns on ability to pay. The Credit Conditions Survey highlights that lenders have reported an increase in default rates, which are missed payments, on loans to businesses of all sizes in Quarter 3. Lenders though are expecting default rates to remain unchanged for businesses of all sizes in Quarter 4.

It would appear that an element of uncertainty creeping in for both lenders and businesses in terms of what lies ahead in the last Quarter of 2018.

The alternative finance market continues to power ahead in terms of support provided to businesses and individuals. The latest figures released by the Peer-to-Peer Finance Association (P2PFA) reveals that the peer-to-peer lending industry lent £750 million which brings the total lent by its members to just under £10 billion.

The P2PFA was established in 2011 as a representative and self-regulatory body for peer-to-peer lending in the UK. There are 8 members of the Association being Crowdstacker; Folk 2 Folk; Funding Circle; Landbay; Lending Works; Marketinvoice; Thin Cats, and Zopa.
The Association has reported that new member’s lending to businesses and individuals has grown by almost £100 million quarter-on-quarter over the last year.

To demonstrate how peer-to-peer is now going mainstream, the Association has highlighted that net lending (defined as total lending minus repayments) of £191 million over the same period was greater by £60 billion than the combined net lending of the major high street banks which stood at £130 million.

On average, three quarters of the lending support UK small businesses. The disparity between the P2P lenders and the traditional High St banks is further highlighted by the latest figures from UK Finance which show that in the 12 months to August 2018, bank lending to businesses fell by 2.1%.

The P2P sector continues to fill a gap being left by the banks and no doubt has been a lifeline for many small businesses.

The culture of late payment to UK SMEs is a regular topic in our weekly Business Finance Bulletin and the reason for this is that delayed payment hurts many businesses by undermining their growth and the value they bring to the UK economy.

A new survey from business finance company MarketInvoice reveals that 62% of invoices issued by UK SMEs in 2017 (worth over £21b) were paid late, up from 60% in 2016.

The survey found that the average value of these invoices was £51,826. A third of invoices paid late took longer than two weeks from the agreed date to settle – some of which took almost 6 months to be paid.
Sectors

Sectors that frequently pay late included the food & beverage industry (83%), energy businesses (80%) and wholesalers (79%). Meanwhile, those who took the longest to pay included transport businesses (25 days), utilities
(23 days) and those in media sector (21 days).

Regions

In terms of regional experiences, businesses in Northern Ireland were found to be the worst late payers with 93% of invoices paid late. East Anglia (68%) and East Midlands (66%) came in second and third respectively. Scotland was the best of the worst, where half (53%) of invoices were settled late.

Countries

The Marketinvoice research also examined invoices sent to 93 countries. German companies were the worst late payers, taking an extra 28 days to settle invoices from agreed terms. French firms took a further 26 days and businesses in the USA 20 days.

While UK companies (66%) often pay invoices late, those in the USA (71%) and continental Europe (73%) are even more likely to delay payment. However, the UK still takes twice as long (18 days) to pay UK suppliers than counterparts in Europe (9 days).

To lessen the impact of late payment Marketinvoice suggests,

– making T&C’s clear from the outset
– chasing payments
– and enforcing the right to claim compensation from late payments

The Duty to Report measures, which requires large businesses to report on invoice payments twice yearly, that came in to force earlier this year will help but how effective it will be remains to be seen.

The invoice finance and asset-based lending sector is providing an increasing share of finance to UK businesses according to latest data released by UK Finance, the trade body for the finance industry.

The amount of money raised via invoice finance (a method of unlocking cash tied up in invoices) and other asset-based finance such as leasing and HP, is up 13% year-on-year. The total amount outstanding sits at just over £22 billion, which is the highest advances figure ever.

There are just over 40,000 UK business now using this form of finance, although this number has remained relatively static.

With the government focused on driving up UK exports, the exporting picture is particularly strong, with sales from clients through export invoice discounting facilities up 33% year-to-date, and export factoring up 11%.

UK Finance wants to see the government do more to encourage smaller businesses access funding via these sources. They are calling on the government to bring forward long-awaited legislation to give more smaller firms access to much-needed funding.

Many small businesses find themselves trapped by o-called ‘ban on assignment’ clauses, which are sometimes imposed by larger businesses on their smaller suppliers. This can restrict the finance options available to those supplier businesses. To address this, the UK Government is expected to bring forward revised Business Contract Terms (Assignment of Receivables) Regulations in the New Year.