Atom bank starts lending under the Recovery Loan Scheme

By Megha Bhattacharya

Atom has today started to offer quotes on its secured lending products under the Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS). RLS gives UK businesses access to finance as they recover and grow following the COVID-19 pandemic, with funding that can be used for managing cashflow, investment, and growth. Through RLS, Atom will offer secured loans from £250,000 up to £5m, subject to eligibility criteria, via its network of 200+ independent brokers across the UK.

Paul Elliott, Head of Mortgages and Business Lending at Atom said, “Atom is delighted to have been accredited by the British Business Bank and to start lending under the Recovery Loan Scheme. Ever since we started lending to UK SMEs in 2016 we have been committed to supporting business owners. Having been a leading lender of broker-led secured lending to new customers under CBILS, we will continue to welcome new customers and to support our rapidly growing group of existing customers with secured RLS loans.”

Atom has built a business lending book of over £725m and the Durham-based mortgage and business lender finished the last financial year with income well above business plan, and a Net Interest Margin in excess of 110 basis points. With simple, transparent and competitively priced secured business lending products, and a history of lending to UK SMEs since 2016, Atom has invested in a programme of Open Banking and automation capabilities as it seeks to deliver a further £1bn in business lending over the next two years.

Atom bank recently announced that it has partnered with FinTech Credit Kudos with an aim to boost its open data capabilities for business loan affordability assessments and to deliver £1 billion in lending over the next two years. Atom bank stated that it will be using Credit Kudos’ categorisation and risk insights to automate underwriting assessments, enabling real-time decisions and improving the customer experience compared to traditional paper-based processes.