Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS)

The Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) was designed to facilitate access to finance for medium-sized and larger businesses affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

About the scheme

The Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) provided finance to mid-sized and larger UK businesses with a group turnover of more than £45 million (the upper limit for CBILS, which focused on smaller businesses) that were suffering disruption to their cashflow due to lost or deferred revenues during the COVID-19 outbreak.

How CLBILS worked

CLBILS was available through a range of accredited lenders and partners.

A lender could provide up to £200 million in the form of:

• term loans
• revolving credit facilities (overdrafts)
• invoice finance
• asset finance

The scheme gave the lender a government-backed partial guarantee (80%) against the outstanding balance of the facility. The borrower always remained fully liable for the debt.

Under CLBILS, a lender took no form of personal guarantee for facilities below £250,000. For facilities above £250,000, the lender could still require personal guarantees, but claims could not exceed 20% of losses after all other recoveries had been applied.