APSCo welcomes Chancellor’s intervention on banking support

The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) has wholeheartedly welcomed the Chancellor’s intervention to enable businesses to gain fair and rapid access to business finance via the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan (CBIL).

Commenting on the Chancellor’s measures, Ann Swain, Chief Executive APSCo said:

“We are pleased that the Government has listened to the concerns APSCo raised in our recent letter to the Chief Executive of the British Business Bank which was copied John Glen, Economic Secretary to the Treasury. The fact that he has banned banks from asking for personal guarantees for loans under £250,000, has made it clear that businesses should be able to apply directly for a CBIL without being offered other products and will be making operational changes to speed up access to the finance were some of the main asks in our letter. We have been undertaking weekly sentiment surveys of our membership and have been extremely concerned at the feedback we have been getting about the behaviour of some of the banks.”

“One member said: ‘The bank won’t let us apply until we have burned through our own cash and only have a few months’ worth of payroll left” while another said: ‘I spoke to my bank and they indicated they would still require a Director’s personal guarantee even though it is a Government backed security.’ Other members spoke of higher than normal interest rates of between 7and 12% and a tendency to try and sell products other than the CBIL.”

“We sincerely hope that this announcement will give the banks clarity on what they need to be doing and we look forward to seeing transparent, publicly available guidance being issued by the British Business Bank directed at the banks, on applying discretion in decision making on eligibility, credit worthiness and appropriateness of the scheme to individual circumstances. We will be monitoring the experiences of our members closely and reporting back to Government on any issues.”

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Tracey Barrett
BlueSky PR
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