Aldermore offers the Recovery Loan Scheme to help SME

Aldermore, the specialist bank, today confirms it is now an accredited lender under the Asset Finance variant of the British Business Bank’s Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS), having previously been an accredited lender under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) and the former Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme.

The RLS provides Aldermore and other accredited lenders with a government-backed guarantee and the borrower always remains 100% liable for the debt. This new scheme will potentially enable Aldermore to provide Asset Finance facilities to SMEs who have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, to support their investment in new and used assets. It launched on 6 April 2021 and will continue until 31 December 2021.

Aldermore’s asset finance RLS features include:

Facility size: advances starting from £25,000

• Term length: facilities are available from 12 months up to 60 months
• Agreement types considered: hire purchase, finance lease, sale and HP/lease back only
• Interest and fees to be paid from the outset: businesses are required to meet the costs of interest payments and any fees associated with the RLS facility
• Access to multiple Covid-19 schemes: businesses that have taken out a CBILS facility are able to access the new RLS.

Lee Rhodes, commercial director, asset finance at Aldermore, said: “Helping SMEs recover following the impact of the pandemic will be crucial to the economic future of the UK and so we welcome the government’s Recovery Loan Scheme. We’re looking forward to working closely with the British Business Bank to offer this new scheme to our customers.

“Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the UK economy and it is our mission at Aldermore that we do everything we possibly can to help them succeed.”

Since being established in 2009, Aldermore has consistently increased its support for UK SMEs. Whilst Aldermore will only offer the asset finance element of the programme in the first instance, it has plans to join other variants of the scheme – helping it to provide further funding to support SMEs build business confidence for recovery and growth.