Data on firms that took UK Covid loans to remain secret, tribunal rules January 5, 2023 Information on thousands of small businesses that received taxpayer-backed loans during Covid-19 will remain confidential, a tribunal has ruled. The decision to keep the names of companies that took support during Covid a secret comes after a tribunal blocked an anti-corruption campaign group’s bid to obtain the data through a Freedom of Information (FoI) request. [...]
Organised crime gangs defrauded £367m from Covid support schemes August 22, 2022 Almost £400m was stolen from the UK government’s Covid support schemes by organised crime gangs, according to new figures released by Whitehall. Figures released by HM Revenue and Customs, after a Freedom of Information request by law firm Pinsent Masons, showed £367m was stolen from initiatives like the furlough scheme and Eat to Help Out. [...]
Rees-Mogg: Treasury ‘hasn’t been serious’ about Covid fraud July 12, 2022 Brexit minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has today said the Treasury “hasn’t been serious” about Covid fraud amid recent figures showing that more than £10bn was lost to scammers. In a further attack on Tory leadership frontrunner Rishi Sunak, Rees-Mogg said on his podcast that the ex-chancellor’s economic policies and “the approach of the Treasury as an [...]
Less than two per cent of £1bn lost to Covid fraud recovered in three years September 6, 2023 Ministers have only recovered around £20m of the more than £1bn lost to Covid fraud in the three years since the start of the pandemic.
Funding Circle chief Lisa Jacobs: Lending through a crisis – and looking toward the US September 14, 2023 It’s not been a quiet few years for small business lenders. When covid struck in 2020, a host of non-banks found themselves thrust into the public consciousness alongside the big High Street lenders as small companies scrambled for a cash lifeline through lockdowns. The reception was a largely positive one; some even took on something [...]
Londoner accused of using Covid bounce back loans to fund Isis May 3, 2022 Thousands of pounds worth of taxpayer backed Covid loans have allegedly been used to fund terrorist activities abroad.
UK banks ramp up lending after Covid-19 support cliff edge July 18, 2022 UK banks are ramping up lending, marking the end of a loan drought after government Covid-19 support schemes were ditched. The total value of lending to UK businesses climbed £12bn to £533bn in the nine months to May, according to research based on Bank of England data published today by debt advisor ACP Altenburg Advisory. [...]
UK’s Insolvency Service uses new powers to crack down on Covid loan fraud July 25, 2022 The UK’s Insolvency Service has begun using new powers, given to it last December, to crack down on company directors that dissolve their firms to avoid making repayments on government backed loans. The Insolvency Service used its “tough new powers” to ban three individuals from acting as company directors, for dissolving their companies to avoid [...]
British Business Bank chief Louis Taylor on risk: ‘Even if the worst happens, you learn’ July 20, 2023 For a man running a bank that has found itself at the centre of a fraud storm over the past two years, Louis Taylor talks warmly about the concept of risk. The state-owned British Business Bank he now runs shot to household-name status through the pandemic and enjoyed a moment in the sun as the [...]
How crisis has become the norm for the UK’s small businesses, Tide chief February 9, 2023 Economic crises have rocked the UK’s smaller firms over the past three years – now they’re becoming par for the course, boss of small business banking firm Tide tells City.A.M.’s Charlie Conchie Small business banking has played a strangely starring role in the national drama of the past three years. When Covid first began to [...]