Aldermore, the specialist bank, has become an accredited provider under the British Business Bank’s Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) programme.
The accreditation will enable Aldermore to increase its supply of asset finance to the small business sector.
The new offering will initially be offered through select introducers, before being rolled out across Aldermore’s broker network in the coming months.
Aldermore will offer the asset finance element of the programme in the first instance, but it has plans to join other variants of the scheme in the near future.
The EFG programme provides Aldermore with a government-backed guarantee against eligible facilities, allowing it to broaden its reach to customers who are unable to secure funding due to insufficient security.
Carl D’Ammassa, group managing director, business finance at Aldermore, said: “We are delighted to be working with the British Business Bank as one of the early participants in EFG for asset finance.
“Through our partners, we are confident we’ll be able to support more businesses than ever before, building on our credentials as arguably the funder of choice for brokers looking to fund assets of all shapes and sizes.”
Aldermore has no branch network but serves customers and intermediary partners online, by phone and face-to-face through its network of regional offices located around the UK.
Last year, overall lending at Aldermore stood at £8.6 billion. It is part of FirstRand Group, one of South Africa’s largest financial services institutions.
The British Business Bank is owned by the UK government, but independently managed. It aims to promote small business lending by supporting smaller business finance markets through a network of 100 partners such as banks, leasing companies, venture capital funds and web-based platforms.
Bernie Skivington, director, guarantee and wholesale solutions at British Business Bank, said: “The asset finance variant of our successful Enterprise Finance Guarantee programme was launched in October last year. Aldermore Bank is the second accredited lender announced for the new variant, and we are delighted it will enable more of its smaller business customers to make critical investments in business assets through leasing or hire purchase.”
