The British Business Bank (BBB) has clarified the closure dates for applicants to the respective Covid-19 loan schemes.

The BBB shared an update to accredited lenders last week that was widely thought to outline an extension of the CBIL and CLBIL schemes by two months, according to the National Association Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB).

The BBB has now confirmed that such an extension is actually only a window beyond the existing closure date for accredited lenders to process applications and conduct any checks they need to carry out in order to offer a facility, the NACFB said

The Bank also confirmed that applicants will be able to apply for a facility under the scheme until the current scheme closure date.

At present, the CBILS scheme closure date is 30 September and the larger scheme CLBILS closure date falls on the 20 October.

It is understood that the Government will make an announcement on the future of the schemes in the coming weeks.

Yesterday, it was reported that the extra time government had given lenders to grant state-backed loans, in an extension of existing Covid-19 schemes, could signal an extension of the schemes beyond this year.

It was reported that the administrators of the scheme, the BBB, wrote to accredited lenders to say that applications for the coronavirus business interruption loans scheme (CBILS) had to be in by 30 September, but that they had two more months to consider the cases – pushing the date of the final approval to 30 November.

The deadline for approving large CBILS (CLBILS) was set for 31 December. The BBB said that it had provided “an update clarifying the closing of applications”.