The Bank recognised that it was “absolutely true that [the Scheme] had a distortive effect” but suggested that this was “diluting over time”.59 It confirmed that it still had an objective of encouraging diversity in lending markets. It explained that it reports on market shares of lenders in its annual small business finance report and its next publication was due in March 2022. The Bank told us that it had seen encouraging signs that diversity in small business lending market was starting to come back, with the amount of lending by alternative lenders remaining stable and their market share in new lending increasing again.60 The loans under the Scheme provided, however, lenders with a foothold in the 52 C&AG’s Report, paras 24, 3.13–3.14 53 Qq 11, 94 54 Qq 96, 101; C&AG’s Report, 3.10 55 C&AG’s Report, para 3.8 56 Qq 103–104, British Business Bank correspondence, 27 January 2022, which states that a total of 28 lenders were accredited to the Scheme 57 C&AG’s Report, para 3.10 58 Qq 97, 104; British Business Bank correspondence, 27 January 2022 59 Q101 60 Qq 98, 101, 102 Bounce Back Loans Scheme: Follow-up 17 SME lending market for up to 10 years, and we expressed our concerns about the long- term distortive effect that this may create. We highlighted in our first report on Bounce Back Loans that the Department had no business case at the launch of the Scheme. We were still concerned that the Bank was just waiting for its evaluation findings and that it was hoping that the Scheme had not had a long-term distortive effect.61 Lessons learnt from the Scheme and future preparedness