UK fintechs Tide and Liberis land loan accreditation

Written by Ruby Hinchliffe
18th May 2020

Tide and Liberis have landed accreditation from the British Business Bank (BBB) to issue loans under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) and the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

Whilst small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) banking service Tide will issue BBLS loans between £2,000 and £50,000, alternative lender Liberis will issue loans under the CBILS, which has the higher cap of £5 million. Liberis says it will issue loans between £50,001 and £150,000.

Tide is aiming to get loan delivery up and running today

The fintechs join recently accredited challenger bank Starling, among others, to help small businesses struggling financially during the coronavirus crisis.

Interest rates under the BBLS and the CBILS are fixed and the government will cover the cost of this interest for the first 12 months with no repayments having to be made in this time.

Tide is aiming to get loan delivery up and running today, after landing its accreditation just before the weekend alongside Liberis.

The fintech says it will test its platform with “a number of members” before scaling up its platform to all 160,000 Tide account holders. The start-ups says approval and payout will be instant, but businesses will have to open a Tide account to receive funds.

Liberis hasn’t confirmed when it will be up and running, but says that when it is it will be able to fast-track finance to businesses “in a matter of hours”.

“We know from our customers that the speed and flexibility of small business finance is essential, particularly when it comes to bridging cashflow in uncertain times,” says Liberis CEO Rob Straathof.

“We have the expertise and technology in place to fast-track the finance in a matter of hours into the hands of the small business owners that need it.”