Around 200 small businesses applied for new government-backed “microloans” through Barclays within the first minute of the scheme launching this morning, the bank has said.
All 200 of the “bounce back loans” were approved within minutes, Barclays UK chief executive Matt Hammerstein told the Treasury Select Committee, and the bank received around 35 applications per minute in the hours after.
The new loans let businesses borrow 25 per cent of their turnover up to a maximum of £50,000, and are 100 per cent guaranteed by the government.
David Oldfield, group director and chief executive of commercial banking at Lloyds Bank, said his bank had received 2,000 applications within two hours, and that the average loan requested was around £35,000.
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