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Coronavirus: Firms struggling to receive £50k bounce back loan

Businesses are struggling to get hold of vital government-backed loans. Photo: Getty
Businesses are struggling to get hold of vital government-backed loans. Credit: Getty

Businesses are still struggling to access new emergency coronavirus loans two weeks after their launch.

The £50,000 ($60,518.50) bounce back loan (BBL) is a government backed scheme which offers vital funds interest-free for a year.

But despite the approval of hundreds of thousands of applications, leading banks are still letting down some of their business customers, according to a BBC report.

BBC News says it has seen a string of complaints against Santander (SAN), HSBC (HSBC) and Barclays (BCS), from customers who have been unable to get any money.

Business owners have been waiting on the phone for hours whilst trying to apply for loans and some Barclays customers have been told, incorrectly, that their personal details were wrongly entered or having two signatories on their account is a problem.

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Barclays said 95% of applicants had received their funds and it is working hard to help those who had fallen through the cracks.

Maria Ogden, who runs a vehicle hire company in Oswestry, Shropshire, has been waiting for an emergency loan from Santander.

She originally applied for the coronavirus business interruption loan (CBIL), then switched to the bounce back loan scheme (BBLS) thinking it would be easier and quicker.

She told the BBC she had spent a week on the phone and email to trying to apply for the loan.

Santander said although applications were processed quickly and smoothly, some were more complicated and they were working through these as quickly as possible.

Almost 270,000 bounce back loans, worth more than £8bn, have already been approved since the scheme was launched.

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A Treasury spokesman said: "Millions has already landed in people's accounts and lenders are working hard to process and approve all applications as quickly as possible.

"All lenders are welcome to apply to the scheme, and we are working closely with the banks to ensure firms get the finance they need."

Responding to the BBC criticism, HSBC said: "We've seen unprecedented demand for Bounce Back Loans and have been working hard to get these much-needed loans to our customers as quickly as possible and we apologise for any inconvenience."