Christoph Rieche, CEO and Co-Founder of Iwoca sent an open lender to Chancellor Philip Hammond stating that the government’s bank referral scheme is failing to deliver any meaningful impact; the referral scheme was originally introduced to expand access to capital for small and medium size businesses in the UK; it launched in 2016, but according to Rieche only 902 loans have been completed; Iwoca accounted for about half of those loans and Iwoca estimates that there is a £10bn funding gap serving small businesses; they are calling for the government to take five steps to improve the program. Source
