British Business Bank’s ENABLE Guarantees Programmes reach £5bn, contributing to ThinCats support to SMEs

The British Business Bank recently reached a major milestone of £5bn of lending delivered through its structured guarantee programmes, ENABLE Guarantees and ENABLE Build. Notably, more than £3bn of this has supported businesses outside of London and the South East, with £500m of funding reaching each of the North West, East Midlands and East of England regions.

The ENABLE Guarantees programme plays a key role in unlocking finance for smaller and medium-sized businesses. It works by offering participants a government-backed guarantee on specific portfolios of business loans, helping to reduce their risk and encourage greater support for SME finance. It is accessible to a wide range of lenders, including UK banks, UK branches of overseas banks, as well as asset and asset-based finance providers. It is aimed at those who lend, or plan to lend, to viable SMEs in the UK.

For ThinCats, the British Business Bank’s ENABLE Guarantees programme has made a significant contribution to the £1bn of funding we have undertaken post COVID. This facility has played a vital role in enabling ThinCats to extend much-needed funding to growing businesses across the UK, particularly to underserved mid-sized SMEs.

The scheme ‘does what it says on the tin’ - enabling senior bank appetite, allowing us to fund the growth plans of UK mid-sized SMEs and in turn enabling a positive contribution to wider UK economy.