SME loan rates rose in June while Bank Rate stood still

The figure comes from the BoxxFinance UK SME Funding Index, updated on 17 August 2026, which tracks the Bank of England's monthly series CFMZ6LD on the effective rate of new lending to small and medium-sized businesses. It puts the gap between what small businesses paid in June and the policy rate underneath it at 2.61 percentage points.

The Monetary Policy Committee held Bank Rate at 3.75% on 30 July and does not meet again until 17 September. Whatever moved in June, it was not the policy rate.

An effective rate is an average of the lending actually written in a month rather than a price on offer, so a single month's move can reflect lenders changing what they charge, or a change in the mix of what got written, or both. The Bank's own Credit Conditions Survey for 2026 Q2, published on 2 July, has lenders reporting that spreads on lending to small and medium-sized businesses were unchanged over the quarter, and that credit availability for those businesses slightly decreased.

Those two readings sit together comfortably enough. Lenders describing steady pricing and slightly tighter availability, alongside an average that drifts upward, points less at a repriced rate card and more at a change in who is getting approved and on what terms.

The practical consequence is small and specific. A rate indication given in the spring is an indication given against a different market, and there is no particular reason to expect a fresh one in September to match it.

For a business with a genuine reason to borrow on a date, none of this should change the plan. For one that has been waiting for a better moment, the June number is a reminder that waiting has a price of its own, and that the price is not always visible until the next quote arrives.

We have set out the fuller picture, including what the effective-rate series can and cannot tell you and how to sequence an application around it, in our guide to UK SME loan rates in 2026.