Lending To And Deposits From Businesses - Bank Of England

30th April 2024

In March, UK non-financial businesses (PNFCs and public corporations) repaid, on net, £1.1 billion of loans from banks and building societies (including overdrafts), compared with £2.8 billion of net repayments in February.

Within this measure, large non-financial businesses repaid £0.7 billion in March, compared to £2.2 billion of repayments in February.

Similarly, small and medium-sized non-financial businesses (SMEs) made net repayments of £0.4 billion in March, compared to net repayments of £0.6 billion in February.

The annual growth rate of borrowing by large businesses was 0.5% in March, down from 1.4% in February. The growth rate of lending to SMEs remained broadly unchanged, at -4.7% in March (Chart 4).

The average cost of new borrowing from banks by UK PNFCs fell by 2 basis points to 6.95%, and the effective interest rate on new loans to SMEs fell by 6 basis points to 7.49% in March.