UK Export Finance (UKEF) launches the General Export Facility (GEF)
in partnership with UK’s leading commercial banks
- New scheme to give exporting SMEs access to working capital
they need to recover from COVID-19
- Government can provide an 80% guarantee on financial support
from lenders to support general exporting costs, up to the value
of £25 million
- GEF will transform UKEF’s offer to smaller businesses,
encouraging them to export and take advantage of new free trade
agreements
UK Export Finance today launches a new guarantee scheme that will
free up funds for UK businesses to cover the costs of
international trade, supporting thousands of jobs and livelihoods
across the country.
Exporters will be able to apply for finance from the UK’s five
largest banks backed by a UKEF guarantee to free up working
capital that can be used for everyday costs linked to exports and
to scale up their business operations. This will help thousands
of businesses, particularly SMEs, to fulfil multiple export
contracts, pay for labour costs, build their inventory and ease
cash flow constraints.
Minister for Exports, , will launch the General Export Facility (GEF) in a
speech at UKEF’s ‘Trade and Export Finance Forum’. He will
announce that the government is shaking up the support it
provides for internationally focused companies to help bring new
trading opportunities to businesses in every part of the country.
Minister for Exports, , will say:
“UKEF’s support for smaller businesses is shifting up a gear.
The new General Export Facility will make a huge difference for
entrepreneurs who need the financial backing to go global and
benefit from our free trade agreements. It will help us bring
genuine optimism back to exporters.
“We were the only top ten exporting nation to grow exports
last year. I’m determined for that success to continue as we
recover from Covid-19. By transforming access to the
world’s best export credit agency, we can unlock the
entrepreneurial energy needed to make that a reality.”
Financial support can be directly accessed from HSBC, Lloyds
Bank, Natwest, Santander and Barclays, the major providers of
trade finance in the country, which can put in place UKEF’s
guarantee automatically.
Other lenders will be added to the facility in due course to
ensure that it is available for as many businesses as possible.
Commenting on the scheme, Managing Director of UK
Finance, Stephen Pegge, said:
“Supporting British exporters at this time is vital, which is
why UK Finance and five of the main export lenders have been
working closely with UKEF on the development of this new
guarantee scheme.
“We expect business to apply from the new year as the General
Export Facility enables lenders to support an even wider range of
small and medium-sized firms, giving businesses the confidence to
win new contracts by having an agreed revolving facility in
place.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
General Export Facility Features
GEF was developed in partnership with the banking and finance
industry to support a range of trade finance products including
trade loans, bonds, letter of credit lines, CapEx and invoice
financing.
The facility enables UKEF to provide a partial guarantee to
lenders of up to 80% of the credit risk on facilities typically
worth up to £25 million, with UKEF’s support no longer tied to
individual export contracts. This follows the recent launch of
the Export
Development Guarantee in July, a guarantee scheme that
supports high value investment by major UK exporters.
UKEF has more than doubled the amount that HSBC, Lloyds Bank,
Natwest, Santander and Barclays can automatically administer to
an exporter through its facilities from £2 million to £5 million.
Eligibility criteria
In order to qualify for GEF as a UK exporter, a business must:
- Self-certify that in any one of its last three financial
years, at least 20% of its annual turnover has been made up of UK
export sales;
OR
- in each of its last three financial years, at least 5% of its
annual turnover has come from UK export sales.
Full details of eligibility criteria are outlined on the product
page here.
