British Business Bank backs £200m NatWest facility for lender Capital on Tap
What's the deal? The British Business Bank (BBB) has backed a £200 million funding facility from NatWest for specialist lender Capital on Tap. The money will let the firm keep lending to small businesses across the UK.
What's the endgame? Capital on Tap has lent to small business owners through its business credit card since 2012. More than 300,000 customers have used the card for around £40 billion of transactions in the UK.
Why now? The deal sits within the BBB's Enable Guarantee programme, which encourages more lending to smaller businesses. Participating lenders pay a fee in return for a government-backed guarantee on defined portfolios of debt finance.
As of October, the programme had completed 23 transactions across 16 delivery partners and supported more than £7 billion of lending, the BBB said.
What they're saying: "This partnership with NatWest and the British Business Bank will give us more capacity to provide the needed working capital that small business owners truly need," said Damian Brychcy, chief executive of Capital on Tap.
Reinald de Monchy, chief banking officer at the British Business Bank, said the deal enhances "the funding NatWest can provide to Capital on Tap, which in turn unlocks additional lending capacity for smaller businesses."
The signal: For a lender built on credit-card receivables, a government-backed guarantee lowers the cost of scaling SME credit — and marks another sizeable institutional commitment behind UK small-business lending.
Read more: alternativecreditinvestor.com
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