Banks approve over £2bn in bounce back loans

The seven largest lenders – Barclays, Danske, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS, Santander and Virgin Money – received more than 130,000 Bounce Back Loan Scheme applications on the first day of the scheme and approved over 69,000 of these to the tune of £2 billion.

Bounce back loans were introduced to help thousands of small firms get finance quickly at a low, affordable rate and with a 100 per cent government-backed guarantee.

"Small businesses will be the driving force of our recovery from the pandemic, creating jobs and securing economic growth," said the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak.

"These loans will help them bounce back from this crisis – getting money fast – so it’s great to see more than 69,000 business benefiting in just the first day.

"It’s vital this speedy progress continues in the days and weeks ahead."

The Bounce Back Loan scheme is one part of the government’s package of business support that includes: £8 billion to pay the wages of furloughed staff at 800,000 firms, nearly 700,000 business properties benefiting from £8.6 billion of business grants, generous VAT deferrals and scrapping businesses rates.