Atom bank has cut rates on its recovery loan scheme and standard secured loans for small businesses, while lifting procuration fees for brokers.
The digital lender says its variable product rates have come down by up to 50 basis points, while its fixed product rates have been reduced by up to 45bps.
The move means that on variable rate products in the standard secured loan range, the bank offers an average rate of 2.61% over base rate for a five-year term.
On fixed-rate products in the standard secured loan range, the bank offers an average rate of 7.41% for a five-year term.
The firm also lifted its procuration fee for business lending by 25bps to 1.5%, subject to broker agreement, until 30 September.
It adds that this is mirrored in the application fee, which has also increased to 1.5%.
The bank also points out that has also made over 120 changes to its online broker portal and back-office origination platform over the last two months, cutting underwriting case times by around half. In addition, it has boosted its commercial broking panel.
The move comes after the firm temporarily halted new business applications in March “to protect service levels”.
Atom bank head of intermediary distribution David Castling says: “Faced with economic uncertainty and rising interest rates, it’s vital that small business owners are able to get a quick financing decision through their broker, and crucially, at a competitive rate.
“We quickly took action to protect service levels by announcing a stop to new business applications in March.
“It was essential to take a considered approach with our return to market and we have been re-engaging with brokers on our panel through multiple phases since April.
He adds: “We took time while off-sale to innovate and improve our processes, to make applying for a loan faster and easier for our brokers.
“We believe the changes we have made to our underwriting process recently will be transformative, drastically reducing the time it takes to review cases.”
