Business Finance Bulletin for Week of 10^th August 2020

The Bank of England calls on banks to help avoid another credit crunch; economic woes are affecting demand for Asset Finance ; and the areas and sectors in the UK that are using CBILS and Bounce Bank loans; all of this in the latest Business Finance Bulletin.

Calls to Avoid Another Credit Crunch

In a previous bulletin I mentioned that I had concerns that we may be seeing another credit crunch by the tail end of this year, and certainly in 2021. Well, it seems that the Bank of England also have similar concerns.

One of the many committees the Bank of England has is the Financial Policy Committee. That committee has responsibility to monitor and oversee risks that the UK economy could face. The latest committee report has suggested they are concerned that banks may not be there to meet the cash requirements of UK businesses.

The committee estimates that there’s probably going to be about £200 billion demand for finance as businesses come out of lockdown and start growing again. One concern is that the banks may not be there to meet that demand. Now, the committee recognises that the banks have done extremely well in supporting businesses before and during lockdown, with an estimated £70 billion of net borrowing distributed; net borrowing, means new money lent out, less money’s paid back.

Of course there are alternative sources of finance. And one thing that popped up last week, IWOCA, an alternative cashflow lender has tapped into a £100 million of funding. It has gone to all of the UK banks and said, “If you’re not happy to support your clients, we further them over to us.” We can see that the alternative finance sector is already stepping into the gap that perhaps may be left by the banks. Interesting developments, so watch this space in order to make sure that you are ahead of the game when it comes to raising finance,

That’s a huge slug of money, primarily sourced via CBILs and Bounce Back Loans. However, with this £200 billion gap, the Bank of England wants to make sure that the banks are there to meet that demand. They are concerned that with insolvencies going to be on the increase, the banks are going to be faced with even bigger losses and therefore will contract and step back from the market in order to conserve their capital. Obviously the Bank of England doesn’t want that, so it’s making an early call to banks to say, “Hey banks, we’re watching you. We want you to be out there supporting UK businesses in 2021”.

Fall in Demand for Asset Finance

Let’s move on now to demand for finance and interesting figures out from the Finance and Leasing Association. Its members are responsible for issuing facilities such as HP and leasing to finance the purchase of capital and machinery.

The figures are for June 2020 and in the month of June, 2020, compared to the month of June, 2019, the total volumes of business written by that sector was down by 41%. That just shows how big the change in the market has been. If we look at the first six months of 2020 versus the first six months of 2019 there, the drop in the volume of business was down by 32%. If we look at the last quarter, the second quarter of 2020 versus the second quarter of 2019, the drop has been a massive 49% in terms of volumes of business written, yes, nearly 50% drop.

What’s driving this?

There are two things. First of all, it’s lack of investment appetite amongst businesses. Many of them are very cautious at the moment, sitting back and watching the market and really don’t want to commit to any capital expenditure at the moment. However, on the other side, we’ve also got many businesses which do want to invest, and instead of obtaining finance have said that they are going to use funds, released via Bounce Bank loans, and CBILs loans. Yes, they’re going to use cash instead of using finance facilities. So, two things at play here.

CBILS and Bounce Back Loan Updates

Closing this week’s Bulletin, our usual look at what’s going on in the CBILs and Bounce Back Loan market. Now, before I take my usual look at the number of facilities drawn, I want to review a report issued by the British Business Bank, which focuses on areas and also sectors that have accessed these government loan support schemes.

First of all, CBILs loans outside of London and the Southeast, where many of businesses are based, it’s businesses based in the East of England that have taken out the most CBILs loans. In terms of Bounce Back Loans, again, excluding London and the Southeast, it’s businesses based in the Northwest, who’ve taken out the largest number of Bounce Back loans. If we look across the UK in terms of where businesses are registered and who’s accessed loans, it’s quite evenly spread and the numbers kind of match each other. It’s good to see a good even spread of businesses accessing support.

In terms of what’s going on in the scheme, figures to the 2nd of August have been released and in total, the amount accessed via the scheme now stands at £50.7 billion. How does this break down? In terms of Bounce Back loans, the number of loans distributed stand at 1,135,575 with £34.3 billion issued, at an approval rate of 82%.

In terms of CBILs loans, the number of loans distributed stands at 58,595 with £13.1 billion issued with an approval rate of 49%, a slight dip on the kind of average of 50%. So again, many businesses still unable to access CBILs. As I’ve mentioned over time, with the CBILs loans coming out with very low acceptance rates, don’t forget, there are many alternative providers out there who can step into that funding gap and help you out. We can see lots of businesses still accessing these schemes, but don’t forget the CBILs ends at the end of September. So, if you’re thinking of applying, you need to get in quick,

Wrap Up

That’s it for another Bulletin and I hope you enjoyed watching. If you did, please, don’t forget to subscribe to this channel and also give it a like and, a share. That’s it, and I look forward to being with you again, next time. And in the meantime, have a great successful, profitable and safe week.