Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the profits made by banks and authorised lenders from providing finance under government covid-19 loan schemes.

Under the rules of our guarantee schemes, accredited lenders are required to pass on to borrowers the benefit of the guarantee in their pricing, reflecting the reduced credit risk provided by the government guarantee.

To provide further protection, under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme the government fixed interest rates at 2.5% for all borrowers. Under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme , the government imposed a cap on interest rates at 14.99% - although the vast majority of loans saw interest rates well below this cap.