The British Business Bank has today announced the appointment of Louise McCoy as Commercial Managing Director, Small Business Lending, effective from Monday 1 May 2023, in a newly-created senior-level role.
Louise joined the Start Up Loans Company, now a programme under the British Business Bank, in 2016 as an Account Director before becoming its Commercial Director in 2018. Prior to that she worked in relationship management, customer service and management information roles for almost 20 years, including at Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank.
In her new position, Louise will have responsibility for aspects of both Start Up Loans and the Bounce Back Loan Scheme.
Richard Bearman, Managing Director, Small Business Lending said:
“Louise has been a vital part of the success of the Start Up Loans programme as its Commercial Director. I am therefore delighted that she was successful in our open recruitment process and will be taking up this important new position. I am looking forward to working with Louise in her new role as we seek to grow and strengthen the Start Up Loans programme, not only over the next twelve months but also the longer term. Bringing aspects of Bounce Back Loans together with Start Up Loans will help us achieve our objectives more effectively with our lenders, business support partners and smaller businesses.”
Notes to editors
About Start Up Loans
The Start Up Loans programme provides personal loans for business purposes of up to £25,000 at a 6% fixed interest rate per annum and offers free dedicated mentoring and support to each business.
The primary aim of the Start Up Loans programme is to ensure that viable start-ups and early-stage businesses have access to the finance and support they need in order to thrive. A network of Delivery Partner organisations supports applicants in all regions and industries throughout the UK. The Start Up Loans programme is not designed to generate a commercial profit. Capital payments together with the interest are recycled to help meet our customers’ increasing demands for finance.
Free guides on a range of subjects related to starting a business and recent media press releases are available on the Start Up Loans website.
The funding for the Start Up Loans programme is provided by the Department for Business and Trade (DBaT). A development bank wholly government-owned by DBaT, the British Business Bank plc is not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The British Business Bank and its subsidiary entities are not banking institutions and do not operate as such.
The British Business Bank makes finance markets for smaller businesses work better, helping the sector to prosper, to grow and to build economic activity.
Key Statistics
- Since its inception in 2012, the Start Up Loans scheme has delivered almost 100,000 loans, providing more than £941 million of funding.
- In the financial year 2021/22, the scheme provided 12,433 loans with a total value of approximately £152.4 million.
- The economic benefits of the Start Up Loans programme are almost six (5.7) times its economic costs.
- At Spending Review 2021, the Chancellor announced resources to provide 33,000 Start Up Loans over next three years.
Aside from the return-on-investment numbers these statistics are gross estimates and based on Start Up Loans CRM along with externally commissioned research undertaken by SQW Ltd, with support from BMG Research.
Since 2012, 5% of loans went to people formerly unemployed or economically inactive. Some 40% of loan recipients were women and 21% were from ethnic minority groups (not including white minorities
About the British Business Bank
The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by improving access to finance for smaller businesses. Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.
The British Business Bank’s core programmes support over £12.2 billion ¹ of finance to more than 96,000 smaller businesses ².
As well as increasing the supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of finance options available to smaller businesses. The British Business Bank Finance Hub provides independent and impartial information to businesses about finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success.
The British Business Bank is also responsible for administering the government’s three Coronavirus loan schemes and its Future Fund, together responsible for delivering £80.4 billion in finance to 1.67 million businesses. These schemes are now closed to new applications.
British Business Bank plc is a public limited company registered in England and Wales, registration number 08616013, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. Wholly owned by HM government, the Bank and its subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. They are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for the group can be found at the British Business Bank.
References:
¹ Figures as at the end of March 2022
² Figures as at the end of March 2022