Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
HSBC has closed its doors on new Bounce Back Loan applications, saying it needs to process loan decisions already in hand.
Small businesses should have until the end of November to apply for a Bounce Back Loan.
To date, 1.3m companies have borrowed £38bn through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS).
>See also: Half of small businesses will never repay Bounce Back Loans, warn banks
HSBC halting Bounce Back Loan applications due to huge demand will anger small business customers hoping to sneak under the wire and take out the one-year interest-free loan before November 30.
The bank has approved 194,000 Bounce Back Loans so far worth £5.9bn and said it is approving a new loan every 20 seconds.
It will continue to process applications from existing HSBC customers as well as those made by non-customers before 9am on Wednesday, September 30.
HSBC will be closed to businesses opening new accounts until December 14.
>See also: Lloyds rapped for forcing Bounce Back Loans borrowers to open accounts
An HSBC UK spokesman told the Telegraph: “As one of the only banks that remained open to applications from all UK businesses since the scheme’s launch, we received a huge level of demand. With the