Esme Loans, NatWest’s standalone digital lending platform for SMEs and scale-up businesses, announced this week it has increased its credit appetite with the maximum loan amount moving to £250,000 from £150,000 to support more UK SMEs.
According to NatWest, Esme Loans has lent over £70million to UK businesses and has seen a sustained period of rapid growth in lending to small businesses with the most recent milestone representing over £20 million of lending in the space of 14 weeks, an increase of 40% to the lender’s total loan book. At its current trajectory, the provider will have reached lending of £100 million by Christmas. Speaking about the credit increase, Head of NatWest Ventures, Andrew Ellis, stated:
“Following a sustained increase in demand for Esme loans, we have listened and engaged with our customers and are increasing the amount we can lend, so that we can support more customers in response to their evolving needs. The digital application and rapid end processing are resulting in more UK SMEs choosing ESME Loans to grow their business.”
Ellis went on to add:
“We will continue to invest in our products, processes and technology to ensure that this continues.”