The Bank of England announced the launch of the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) in a press release published on 17 March 2020, with further information provided in a BoE market notice on 18 March 2020. The CCFF will provide funding to large corporate businesses by purchasing commercial paper of up to one-year maturity and is intended to be fully operational in the week commencing 23 March 2020. The BoE will operate the CCFF through the Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the BoE.

On 23 March 2020, the BoE launched a webpage which included Q&As setting out the practical steps that firms need to take in order to access the CCFF.

In a related development, the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) announced on 23 March 2020 that it would be making available its Euro commercial paper materials to non-ICMA members. The statement adds that the BoE has confirmed to ICMA that it will accept commercial paper issued on ICMA standard templates, though ICMA anticipates some parties may wish to use the ICMA materials as a basis from which to develop narrower use documentation.

For information on commercial paper, see Practice note, Euro commercial paper: overview.