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

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they (1) received, or (2) sought, any information from (a) the government of Germany, (b) German financial regulators, or (c) the German Deposit Protection Scheme in connection with Greensill Bank before the British Business Bank accredited Greensill Capital as a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme lender; and whether they were advised by the government of Germany that the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (i) had established a Greensill task force in July 2020, and (ii) appointed KPMG to conduct a review of the management of Greensill Bank in September 2020.

The Department neither sought nor received any information from the German government, German financial regulators, or the German Deposit Protection Scheme in connection with Greensill Bank.

The decision to accredit Greensill Capital was made independently by the British Business Bank (the Bank) and in accordance with the Bank’s usual procedures. The Bank ran an accreditation process for lenders to participate in the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), which included due consideration of whether a prospective lender met the criteria set out in the CBILS Request for Proposals (a publicly available document).

At the point of accreditation and based on the information provided to it, the Bank considered that Greensill Capital met the required criteria.