British finance minister Rishi Sunak bowed to pressure on Monday to do more to help companies survive the coronavirus shutdown, announcing full state guarantees on lending to Britain's smallest businesses.
LONDON - British finance minister Rishi Sunak bowed to pressure on Monday to do more to help companies survive the coronavirus shutdown, announcing full state guarantees on lending to Britain’s smallest businesses.
Banks handling the loans will not be required to run credit checks or assess the long-term viability of applicants. Firms will have no interest or repayments for the next 12 months. Government forecasters have said the economy could contract by 35% in the second quarter of 2020, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday it was still too risky to relax the lockdown.
BoE Governor Andrew Bailey suggested this month that 100% state guarantees for the smallest loans might break a backlog in loans applications.
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