Growth Guarantee Scheme launched to support access to finance for SMEs

Compass Business Finance has confirmed that it has been accredited to deliver funding supported by the Growth Guarantee Scheme (GGS), via the British Business Bank to create further access to finance for UK smaller businesses to invest and grow.

Launched this month as a successor to the Recovery Loan Scheme, an important new development is the addition of asset-based lending (ABL) and invoice finance to the range of supported facilities.

The Growth Guarantee Scheme is a government-backed loan scheme that enables lenders to provide finance where they may not otherwise have done so, or to extend better-than-standard terms on business financing options. The scheme supports access to a wide range of business finance products for UK businesses.

The products under the scheme that can be offered by Compass include:

• Term Loansof £25,001 to £2m for business groups, across terms of up to 6 years.
• Asset Financefor investments in new and used machinery or other assets, where the finance is secured primarily against the asset itself.
• Asset-Based Lending is comprised of two or more types of finance being knitted together to achieve the overall funding package required.
• Invoice Financeenables applicants to access 85%-90% of the value of their unpaid invoices the moment they are raised.

Jamie Nelson, Compass Business Finance Director, said: “We are delighted that the Growth Guarantee Scheme includes the addition of asset-based lending and invoice finance to the supported facilities. ABL typically provides significantly higher levels of working capital than conventional methods of funding, such as bank loans and overdrafts.”

He added: “Having been accredited to provide CBILS from day one and latterly the Recovery Loan Scheme, we’ve been able to support hundreds of additional customers in acquiring the finances they’ve needed to move their businesses forward. And GGS will help us to continue supplying funds where we otherwise may not have been able to.”

Find out more information from the British Business Bank on GGS here or on the Compass Business Finance website here.