Barclays Launches £100K SME Loans

Barclays is now offering £100,000 unsecured lending for SMEs on its app and online banking platform.

A recent survey by Barclays found that 44 percent of SMEs said they would have more confidence in applying for a loan if they could see a pre-assessed limit. With that in mind, the lender is now offering over 360,000 customers pre-assessed limits on their digital channels, with the limits for unsecured digital lending increasing to £100,000 from £25,000 for thousands of clients. Funds are typically received within 24 hours.

Last year Barclays funded a new startup every four minutes, with a total of £2.8 billion of loans provided to small businesses. The bank recently unveiled a package that included a £14 billion dedicated lending fund, as well as a series of over 100 clinics to provide business advice and guidance from the bank’s 1,500 relationship managers.

“Every day we talk to thousands of SMEs about how we can support them to grow their business, and our team of relationship managers are out and about visiting offices and homes up and down the country,” Ian Rand, CEO of Barclays Business Banking, said in a press release.  “Now, with the launch of £100k unsecured lending on our app and online banking, we’ll be able to go even further to support businesses with exciting scale-up plans to borrow what they want, when they want. With pre-assessed limits of up to £100k, clients can follow just six simple steps and receive the money in their account normally within 24 hours.”

Last year the bank invested in small business lending platform MarketInvoice, making it the first High Street FI to partner with the FinTech. In addition to acquiring a minority stake in the alternative lender, MarketInvoice will integrate its invoice financing solution into Barclays’ offering. The tie-up is part of Barclays’ larger initiative to enhance its small business financial services.