(Reuters) – The United Kingdom is planning to launch a permanent replacement for the 65 billion pounds ($86.86 billion) COVID-19 loans programme with new state-backed guarantees to support lending by banks to a range of small to medium-sized business, the Financial Times newspaper reported late on Sunday.
The new loan scheme may carry a guarantee of up to 80% for loans of up to 10 million pounds for businesses deemed viable but unable to get finance from their lender, the newspaper said. Banks would be allowed to set interest rates for the new loans but the rate is expected to be capped at about 15%.
The terms of the scheme are still being finalised by the Treasury, according to the FT report https://on.ft.com/37ZvD5U.
The Treasury did not comment on the financial details mentioned by the newspaper but said it was working on a new loan scheme.
“As the Chancellor announced at the Winter Economy Plan, we are working on a new, successor loan scheme and will provide more details in due course”, a Treasury spokesman said in an email.
($1 = 0.7483 pounds)
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
