Banking Circle Lending has been named Best Alternative SME Lender in the £0-£250,000 category at the Credit Strategy Lending Awards.

Announced at a ceremony during the Credit Strategy Lending Summit in London, the Lending Awards is the only awards programme which distinguishes and rewards individuals and businesses across the spectrum of Alternative Lending, Commercial Finance and Mortgage sectors. As such they celebrate and recognise excellence across the UK credit market.

Anders la Cour, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Banking Circle commented: “Increasing financial inclusion is at the heart of everything we do at Banking Circle, and the launch of our innovative business lending solutions has been a significant step in this journey. We built Banking Circle Lending and Banking Circle Instant Settlement in response to the results of our industry research, with current market needs right at the centre. The research revealed the significant obstacles businesses face when they need additional finance. Winning this award demonstrates that we have built valuable solutions to these very real problems.”

Banking Circle Lending provides financial institutions with the capability to offer merchant customers a fast, transparent, flexible, low-cost, and easy-to-manage loan solution. Where once smaller businesses were unable to achieve global ambitions due to a lack of necessary funds, Banking Circle Lending is improving financial inclusion by giving financial institutions the ability to offer SMEs fast access to loans with flexible repayment options.

Banking Circle Instant Settlement enables PSPs to offer their merchants instant access to cash, while they wait for payment from customers or marketplaces which often take up to 90 days. Banking Circle Instant Settlement gives Merchants instant access to the cash flow they need to run their business effectively.

Anders la Cour concluded: “Our new lending solutions have proven extremely popular and quickly exceeded our expectations and those of our customers and partners. It is an honour to have been recognised in the Credit Strategy Lending Awards which is a huge boost and testament to the hard work and innovative thinking of our entire team. We remain committed to investigating pain points businesses experience in banking and payments, and building solutions to provide affordable and realistic alternatives, and look forward to launching more exciting solutions in the coming months.”