Transparency data

Bounce Back loans held by dissolved or liquidated companies

Published 30 May 2025

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

Introduction

This ad hoc publication provides insight into the number of Bounce Back loans (BBL) held by companies which have dissolved or entered insolvent liquidation as at 31 March 2025. These totals have been calculated by matching Bounce Back loan scheme (BBLS) administrative data provided to the British Business Bank (BBB) data portal by scheme accredited lenders to data held by the Insolvency Service and Companies House and company liquidations and dissolutions.

Further detail on BBLS performance is available in the COVID-19 loan guarantee schemes repayment data transparency releases.

Table 1 summarises the number of BBL facilities drawn by dissolved companies and companies that have entered insolvent liquidation, and the number of those companies which have drawn a BBLS facility. These numbers differ slightly because some companies are recorded as holding multiple BBL facilities. See the ‘Limitations and further considerations’ section for further information on these cases.

Table 1: number of Bounce Back loans held by dissolved companies and companies that have entered insolvent liquidation

	Number of facilities	Number of companies
Dissolved	51,413	50,935
Compulsory liquidation	4,684	4,549
Creditors’ voluntary liquidation	58,655	57,929
Total	114,752	113,413

Table 2 breaks down the BBL facilities drawn by dissolved companies and companies that have entered insolvent liquidation between the main groupings of loan states.

Table 2: status of Bounce Back loans held by dissolved companies and companies that have entered insolvent liquidation

	Number of facilities
Fully repaid	38,454
Repaying	542
Defaulted	73,977
Guarantee removed	1,779
Total	114,752

Definitions

Compulsory liquidation

A method of liquidation whereby creditors of an insolvent company apply to court to close or ‘wind up’ the company if it cannot pay its debts. Full details are available on the Insolvency Service website.

Creditors’ voluntary liquidation

A method of liquidation whereby an insolvent company’s shareholders agree to liquidate the company and appoint an insolvency practitioner to arrange liquidation with the company’s creditors. Full details are available on the Insolvency Service website.

Data portal

The database hosted by BBB as part of its role in administering the schemes. It is used by all accredited scheme lenders to report on guaranteed loans and make claims under the Guarantee Agreement. The reporting requirements have evolved over time. The portal is updated at various points in a loan lifecycle as reported by lenders.

The scheme portal is the system of record for all facilities delivered through the COVID-19 debt guarantee schemes (which includes BBLS, Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme). Under the terms of the Guarantee Agreements, accredited lenders must submit facility level data into the portal on a periodic basis to allow BBB to track the exposure of His Majesty’s Government (HMG) to the portfolio.

Defaulted

BBLS facilities on which borrowers have defaulted on their repayments to borrowers. This includes facilities on which the government guarantee for the outstanding balance has been paid to the lender as well as facilities against which recoveries have been made from the borrower following payment of the government guarantee. This also includes BBLS facilities on which lenders have opted not to make a claim under the government guarantee.

Dissolved

A company can apply to be struck off the Companies Register, subject to certain Conditions. This is known as ‘dissolving’ and is separate from the liquidation process. Full details are available on the UK government website.

Guarantee removed

This category represents facilities for which lenders have identified issues within their portfolio of scheme facilities. Such issues can include data entry errors or where the lender voluntarily wishes to remove the facility from guarantee cover for other reasons. For facilities where the government guarantee has already been paid prior to the removal of the guarantee, the lender refunds the amount claimed under the government guarantee to the BBB.

Fully repaid

The BBLS facility has been fully repaid by the borrower. The borrower may have repaid the balance prior to, during or after the dissolution or liquidation process.

Repaying

BBLS facilities marked in the scheme portal as making repayments, including those in arrears which are counted separately in the transparency data release. Since a dissolved company is unlikely to continue making repayments, it is likely that these cases represent instances of recent dissolutions or liquidations or where there has been an issue with data provided to the scheme portal (see the ‘Limitations and further considerations’ section).

Limitations and further considerations

The following should be considered in relation to the data:

• data is as at 31 March 2025 and extracted on 17 April 2025 from the information continuously submitted to the scheme portal by accredited scheme lenders and administrative data held by Companies House and the Insolvency Service. The accuracy of the data in the scheme portal is dependent on lenders submitting accurate and timely data and the data is not real-time

• these figures only represent borrowers which are companies (i.e. have a company reference number). Businesses without a CRN are not subject to dissolution and liquidation proceedings. Although such entities were eligible for BBLS borrowing, they are not included within the data presented here

• the data presented here does not include companies registered in Northern Ireland because the Insolvency Service do not hold data on liquidations in Northern Ireland. The data is therefore only representative of companies in England, Scotland and Wales

• the insolvency data presented here does not include insolvencies which aren’t liquidations (administrations, receiverships, CVAs, moratoriums, restructuring plans) or Members’ Voluntary Liquidations (MVLs)

• where a company holding a BBLS facility has been identified as being both liquidated and dissolved within the source data sets, the company has been considered as being liquidated for the purposes of this publication. The corresponding entry in the dissolved category has been removed to avoid double-counting. This reflects cases where companies have completed the liquidation process and have subsequently dissolved

• all borrowers remain liable for repaying their BBLS debt before, as well as after, the government guarantee has been claimed by lenders. As such, claims on the guarantee may subsequently benefit from recovery receipts achieved at a later date

• BBL borrowers were eligible to receive only one BBL under the scheme rules. Where a company is listed in the portal as being in receipt of multiple BBLs, this may not be indicative of a breach of BBL rules. Multiple borrowings may also arise as a result of data entry errors within the portal