Case study: Delivering flexibility with the British Business Bank

Since stepping up to become a key vehicle in the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, the British Business Bank has played a vital role in supporting businesses across the UK during this period of uncertainty.

Established by the UK Government in 2014, the British Business Bank is a business development bank dedicated to making finance markets work better for smaller businesses. Working with over 180 partners such as banks, leasing companies, venture capital funds and web-based platforms, the British Business Bank has helped hundreds of thousands of UK businesses achieve their goals, creating additional jobs and contributing to economic activity in the process.

At the start of the pandemic, the Bank was tasked by the Treasury to support businesses by rolling out new loan programmes across the economy as quickly and efficiently as possible. In need of extra resources to deal with the increase in their workload and the tight deadline they were facing Obelisk provided a finance lawyer with lending experience start work with the team as an extra pair of hands at a time of national emergency.

A second finance lawyer started helping the team as the initial pressure receded and the team needed overflow support to manage the work under the business support measures introduced by the government.

“Initially, I joined to help out with extending the reach of the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme. Since then, this has evolved into getting involved in the legal operational matters around the schemes and their implementation by the Lenders.”

Summary: Adding value to an organisation at a time of national emergency and providing additional lending expertise to a legal team facing tight deadlines and increased workloads.