Eight percent of Covid loan borrowers subject to a default

In the first set of figures detailing the performance of government-backed loans, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said - as of 31 March 2022 - businesses have drawn more than 1.6 million facilities across the three schemes developed to support businesses, totaling £77.1bn. 

Of these, loans distributed through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) had the highest arrears rate - with around seven percent of all scheme facilities currently in arrears, and four percent are in default. More than 78% are, however, on schedule and almost seven percent are fully paid back. 

As for the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), more than 78% are on schedule and more than 18% are fully paid back. Just over one percent are currently in arrears and fewer than one percent are currently in default. 

More than 73% of facilities through the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme, meanwhile, are scheduled - and 26% are fully paid back. Fewer than one percent are currently in arrears and none are currently in default. 

Across all three of the loans, the government guarantee has so far been settled on fewer than one percent of the total loans.  

In addition to this, more than 85% of facilities have either fully repaid or are meeting monthly repayments as scheduled, while seven percent have already been paid in full worth £9bn. Alongside this, 28% of facilities that had a Bounce Back Loan facility have accessed one or more Pay As You Grow options. 

Lenders reported the fraud check they undertook as part of the BBLS application process prevented 62,380 loans with a value of £2.2bn from being loaned to potentially fraudulent businesses or individuals. They also identified about 18,000 BBLS loans and 100 CBILS loans as “suspected fraud”. 

Looking at the figures in total, more than 1.2 million facilities - 78.1% of the total handed out, worth £52.81bn - are on schedule, 120,544 - or 7.4% - have been fully repaid and 114,750 - or seven percent - are in arrears. 62,367, or 3.8% totalling £2.09bn - meanwhile have defaulted on these facilities.