Volante Technologies joins US Faster Payments Council

Volante Technologies, a global provider of payments and financial messaging solutions, has announced that it has officially joined the US Faster Payments Council (FPC). As a member of the council, Volante will be joining as a voting member in the Technology Providers segment to further address issues that inhibit the adoption of faster payments.

In the US, Volante acted as the enabler of the first real-time payment over The Clearing House RTP network, and has been an active participant within the Faster Payments Task Force. Internationally, the company has helped banks of all sizes process real-time payments, as a service in the cloud or on-premise, for regional frameworks such as UK Faster Payments, Mexico SPEI, and EU SEPA instant. Recently, the company launched its free RTP as a service programme, eliminating the onboarding and service costs typically associated with connecting to new payments rails.

 

RBC launches government COVID-19 programme to help business liquidity

RBC has announced the availability of the government of Canada’s Business Development of Canada (BDC) Co-Lending Program. The BDC Co-Lending Program provides eligible business clients with a loan of up to C$6.25m, jointly financed by RBC and BDC. The loan is intended to help eligible businesses impacted by COVID-19 with a boost in liquidity to cover critical business expenses such as rent, payroll and utilities to maintain operational continuity.

The maximum loan value varies by the size of the organisation, and may be structured as an interest-only payment obligation for the first year. The BDC Co-Lending Program is one of many temporary business relief solutions announced by the government of Canada, which includes the recent launch of the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) and EDC BCAP Guarantee for business clients. All of these programmes are now available through RBC.

 

British Business Bank announces 4 new CBILS lenders

The British Business Bank has announced it has approved four new lenders for accreditation under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), which provides financial support to smaller businesses (SMEs) across the UK that are losing revenue and seeing their cashflow disrupted, as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak. The new CBILS lenders are Allied Irish Bank, ThinCats, Paragon Bank and IGF (Independent Growth Finance).

Following their approval, each lender will be putting in place the operations required to start lending under the scheme and will confirm shortly the dates from which they will be ready to start receiving CBILS applications from smaller businesses across the UK. More than 80% of the UK’s smaller businesses have a finance relationship with CBILS’ 50+ accredited lenders. The British Business Bank says it is accelerating at pace the onboarding of new lenders to further extend the scheme’s reach.

It was originally announced at Budget that an initial £1bn of government-backed lending would be available through CBILS. The government subsequently announced that it would be a demand-led programme, providing whatever the market needs.