BCRS Business Loans delivered funds to businesses led by women and ethnic led companies at levels above national averages in the most recent financial year, a new impact report has revealed.
With 15 per cent of small to medium sized employers led by women nationally*, in the 2024-2025 financial year 21 per cent of BCRS’s total lending was disbursed to female led businesses, the report showed.
During the same period, the community development finance institution distributed 20 per cent of its loans to ethnic minority led businesses, compared with research showing seven per cent of SME employers national being ethnic minority group led.
As part of the drive by BCRS Business Loans to distribute investment where it is needed most, 35 per cent of total lending was disbursed into the UK’s top 35 per cent most disadvantaged areas according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation.
As a CDFI, BCRS Business Loans operates as a non-profit distributing company through a story-based approach to lending, enabling firms to access finance from between £10,000 and £250,000 to help grow and support recovery plans.
At the annual general meeting at Wolverhampton Science Park on Thursday (September 11), Chief Executive Stephen Deakin updated members of the co-operative society on the business loan lending performance in the 2024-25 financial year.
Mr Deakin reported that BCRS Business Loans achieved one of its best years ever for delivering funds, providing £9,900,502 to 124 businesses, a 68 per cent increase in the number of SMEs supported compared to the previous year.
In the last financial year, lending through BCRS Business Loans safeguarded 889 jobs and created 317 roles while adding £51.2m to the economy of the West Midlands, surrounding region and Wales.
Mr Deakin said:
“The 2024-2025 financial year was one of the best years of lending in our history. BCRS Business Loans is committed to lending to viable businesses making a positive contribution to the social, environmental or economic wellbeing of the West Midlands, surrounding areas and Wales, and that have been unable to secure funding through mainstream lenders.
“The performance for the current year is going well, with lending up on last year and 43 businesses supported already and we are delivering on our aim of supporting more entrepreneurs in under-represented parts of society.”
Chair Paul Smee told the AGM:
“BCRS Business Loans has an ethos and a belief that all viable small businesses be supported. The West Midlands will always be our heartland but we are now making an impact in Wales and extending the area where we are active.”
The AGM was told other recent highlights included BCRS Business Loans being named as an accredited Living Wage Employer, a commitment which means everyone working at the Wolverhampton-based community lender receives a minimum hourly wage of £12.60, higher than the government minimum for over 21s, which currently stands at £12.21 per hour.
BCRS Business Loans has announced Kids’ Village, a Staffordshire holiday village providing respite care for children with critical illnesses as its Charity of the Year. The lender also allocates 10 per cent of surplus funds to support organisations with shared values on enabling entrepreneurship in deprived areas with Wales-based Purple Shoots receiving £27,000 to support the growth of small businesses.
Other beneficiaries of support include Cardiff City FC Foundation, north Wales rugby side Rygbi Gogledd Cymru and 14-year-old surfer Josie Hawke.
Since 2002, BCRS Business Loans has delivered £100 million in total lending to businesses, generating £518 million in economic impact. Up to April 2025, BCRS Business Loans supported 1,594 businesses that were unable to access traditional finance, creating over 5,900 jobs and safeguarding 11,779 existing roles.
BCRS Business Loans is a fund manager for the small funds pot of the first £130m Investment Fund for Wales and for the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II, which will deliver a £400m commitment of new funding for businesses across the Midlands.
BCRS Business Loans recently celebrated delivering £6.2m in CIEF loans to 75 companies in total, creating 208 jobs and protecting a further 730 roles while generating £32m in added economic value for the West Midlands and Wales. With BCRS Business Loans focussing on firms under-represented in traditional lending, 31 per cent of the SMEs were female-led.
