The government has approved more fintech and non-bank lenders to facilitate its emergency loan schemes for businesses hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, bringing the number up to more than a dozen.

Four new non-bank lenders – fintech lenders MarketFinance and Capital on Tap, and the challenger banks Shawbrook Bank and Bank Leumi – are among the latest to be approved to lend under the Treasury’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, according to the website of the taxpayer-funded British Business Bank.