Privacy Battle: UK's Watchdog Denies Request to Name COVID Loan Lenders

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has rejected Reuters' appeal to disclose lenders who forfeited state guarantees on COVID-19 loans, citing potential commercial harm. Reuters revealed that government guarantees on £1 billion ($1.3 billion) of pandemic-era loans had been scrapped, but the British Business Bank (BBB) didn't disclose the lenders involved.

Britain's information watchdog has rejected a Reuters appeal to identify lenders who have lost or surrendered state guarantees on millions of pounds of COVID-19 emergency loans, citing potential harm to their commercial interests.

Reuters revealed in November that government guarantees on about 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) of pandemic-era loans to stricken businesses had been scrapped, based on data obtained under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the British Business Bank (BBB), which oversees the emergency lending schemes. The BBB, however, declined to name the banks that could no longer claim taxpayer cash on some troubled COVID debt, saying that disclosure "would have an adverse impact" on its relationship with the lenders, some of which had waived guarantees voluntarily after finding flaws in lending processes.

Reuters appealed on the grounds of public interest to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). But the ICO has accepted the BBB's position that naming the banks could "have a bearing on a lender's ability to compete for customers and against other lenders or investors", with public interest arguments outweighed by potential "commercial harm".

(With inputs from agencies.)