NatWest and The Royal Bank of Scotland have announced that they are to make an additional GBP3 billion funding available to small and medium enterprises, or SMEs, in 2009. This new commitment will be delivered through 12 regional SME funds in England, Wales and Scotland.
Ulster Bank will provide the funds for Northern Ireland’s businesses. The funds will provide a package of funding choices for SMEs in each region across the UK, said The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). The new package is a part of the commitment made by the bank to increase lending to the UK borrowers by an additional GBP6 billion.
NatWest and RBS have committed to make an additional GBP250 million funding available to SMEs in each regional development agency region in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The new locally administered funds are expected to offer customers a wide range of financial support including business loans which allow customers to postpone capital repayments, invoice finance products which may guarantee debtor payment, new ways to release cash through using the assets already owned by the business and short-term trade finance essential to keep imports and exports flowing.
Accessed via customers’ existing business relationship managers, these funds will also offer SME customers lower priced loans from the GBP250 million funding the bank has recently secured from the European Investment Bank, said RBS.
Alan Dickinson, CEO of RBS UK, said: The launch of the new SME funds reinforces our commitment to support our 1.2 million SME businesses locally across all areas of the UK. Our lending to business and commercial customers rose by 10% in 2008 and these funds are part of the commitment made by the bank last month to increase lending to UK borrowers by an additional GBP6 billion.
