According to its latest annual report, the British Business Bank has further increased its ‘impact’ and ‘market reach’ across the UK.  

New figures show that, at the end of March 2022, the Bank was supporting over 96,000 businesses with £12.2bn of finance through its core programmes. One of its key objectives is to reduce regional imbalances in access to finance, and the Bank said it had exceeded its target in this area by deploying £900m of finance to firms outside London in 2021/22.  

Additionally, through its Regional Angels programme, the Bank has helped reduce regional imbalances in access to seed and early-stage equity finance for smaller businesses. In total during 2021/22, the Bank said it had made six new commitments totalling £45m. 

Catherine Lewis La Torre, the Bank’s CEO, said, “We have increased our impact and market reach to smaller businesses across the UK’s regions and nations. Despite this success over the last financial year, we are aware that areas of economic and geopolitical uncertainty remain. The serious headwinds that the economy is encountering make a national economic development bank an invaluable strategic asset, and we are ready and prepared to play whatever role is required to support UK smaller businesses.”