KBC Bank NV, London Branch is the latest lender to join the General Export Facility (GEF) scheme offered by UK Export Finance (UKEF).
This will allow the UK Government — working through UKEF — to support with a partial guarantee of those loan facilities extended by the bank to UK exporters who are physically present in the bank’s core markets of Belgium, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria.
This will create new financing opportunities for small and medium-sized UK exporters, according to Amy Clarke, UKEF’s Head of Short-term Business.
She said: “I am very proud of the support we at UKEF, on behalf of the Government, are able to provide for British SMEs through the General Export Facility. In the last year, it has offered over £575 million in financial support to hundreds of small businesses.”
KBC Bank NV, London Branch is a sector-agnostic lender supporting deals across all industries, with clients ranging from SMEs to large corporations. It is expected that UKEF will support transactions for debts ranging between £0.5 million to £50 million with a five-year tenure.
Jason Pratt, its Head of Corporate Banking, said: “We are excited to have been accredited by UKEF to offer the GEF. It will enable KBC Bank to offer access to UKEF-supported products to its customer base and thereby open up further working capital financing options available to our customers to help them grow their businesses.”
