Small and medium-sized businesses struggling to access finance have received a boost with Business Secretary Vince Cable announcing the launch of the first phase of the new business bank.
£300 million will be invested alongside private investors to address long-standing gaps in the SME finance market. This money is the first deployment from the £1 billion of new capital allocated to the business bank in the 2012 Autumn Statement. It will build on the success of the Business Finance Partnership to leverage at lease the same amount in private sector investment.
The Government committed to £1 billion of new capital to the business bank initiative last year. Taken together with existing measures, this means the Government is providing nearly £4 billion to help SMEs secure lending.
The business bank is expected to be established as a new entity in Spring 2014 with an expectation that responsibility for all finance solutions is transferred from BIS to the business bank in autumn 2014.
For more information, visit the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) website.
Source: Gov.uk, 10/04/2013