However, Scottish Financial News reported last week that the banking body is refusing to supply a breakdown of lending by individual banks, amid suspicions that many banks are obfuscating the delivery of the business loans. It is known that over 50% of the lending has come from the taxpayer-owned RBS alone.

Total lending under CBILS has doubled in the week from 14 April to 21 April, with an increase of £1.45bn. Over 9,000 loans have been provided in the same period, with the total number approved increasing by almost 120% to over 16,600.

Lenders have received over 36,000 completed applications so far. 16,624 of these applications have been approved to date, while others are still being processed and may be approved over the coming days.

Bank staff are working hard to help viable businesses access the support they need to get them through these challenging times. Over half the total number of loans provided through CBILS have been approved in the past eight days alone.

In addition to the finance being made available through CBILS, lenders continue to provide capital repayment holidays, overdrafts and working capital extensions to help businesses manage their costs where these arrangements are appropriate.

The industry has also taken steps to give additional support to those businesses who are furloughing their employees. Where possible, lenders will look to provide support to firms that have successfully applied for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to help them manage their cashflow while they await receipt of a grant from the scheme.

Stephen Jones, chief executive of UK Finance, said: “The banking and finance sector understands the critical role we have in helping businesses through these tough times.

“Frontline staff have been working tirelessly to get money to those viable businesses that need it as quickly as possible, with over £2.8 billion of lending provided to 16,000 firms so far. This lending forms part of a broad package of support provided to SMEs including additional loans, capital repayment holidays, extended overdrafts and asset-based finance.

“We know businesses want to look after their most important resource – their people – and so lenders are offering additional support to firms awaiting grants from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

“We stand ready to support many more businesses in the weeks ahead, and will continue to work closely with the government to ensure businesses can access the support they need.”

Suren Thiru, head of economics, British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), commented: “The increase in companies accessing CBILS is encouraging progress. However, the number of applications processed and approved will need to be increased significantly in what is a crunch week for firms urgently trying to access financial support.

“Our Coronavirus Business Impact Tracker tells us that a concerningly high number of businesses are still finding accessing the scheme too complex and too lengthy. The government and financial institutions must continue to work together to identify practical steps to improve the workings of the CBILS scheme to ensure that cash gets to the frontline as quickly as possible.”

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