Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to prevent lenders blocking businesses from accessing the Bounce Back Loan Scheme by requiring them to set up feeder accounts which are subject to credit checks that do not apply to the loan itself.

The Bounce Back Loan scheme (BBLS) rules do not mandate that the applicant must have a business relationship with the lender in order to receive a BBLS loan.

Certain lenders may require that you enter into a business relationship with them before you can apply and, within their standard policies and terms and conditions of business, some lenders may not permit an existing customer to operate their business via a personal account.

While all lending decisions remain solely at the discretion of the lender, the Government have always made clear to lenders that they should open to new customers as soon as it is operationally possible for them to do so.