Annual Report and Accounts 2023

Our Annual Report and Accounts reports on the performance of the Bank during the 2022/23 financial year.

At 31 March 2023, the Bank’s provision of financial support to smaller businesses through its core programmes was £12.4bn, significantly exceeding its target of £10.7bn.

The report covers the performance of the Bank’s core programmes during the year, and introduces the Bank’s new strategic priorities from 2023/24: driving sustainable growth, backing innovation, unlocking potential, and building the modern, green economy.

Key highlights of the British Business Bank Annual Report

The Bank’s performance against its measured objectives in the last financial year was as follows:

• Increasing the supply of finance to smaller businesses – The stock of finance supported through the Bank’s core finance programmes was £12.4bn at the end of March 2023, supporting more than 90,000 businesses, significantly exceeding its £10.7bn target.
• Helping create a more diverse finance market for smaller businesses – The Bank continued to deploy the vast majority of finance in its core finance schemes outside of the largest UK banks, exceeding the target set. 99% of the Bank’s finance was provided outside the ‘Big Five’ banks, against a 97% target.
• Identifying and helping to reduce regional imbalances in access to finance – The Bank met its target for deployment of finance across the UK’s Nations and regions, deploying £1.27bn of finance outside of London.
• Being the centre of expertise on smaller business finance in the UK, providing advice and support to the Government – The Bank was assessed to have met its objective in deploying its expertise to the government effectively informed by delivery against six performance indicators.
• Achieving its other objectives while managing taxpayers’ money efficiently – The Bank achieved an adjusted return of 6.5%, significantly exceeding its target of 1.3%.
• Supporting the UK’s transition to a net zero economy – the Bank met its key milestones in delivery of an initial portfolio alignment strategy, an emissions baseline for its own operations, and an initial delivery plan to target net zero in its own operations.