Newable Business Loans accredited under General Export Facility programme




Newable Business Loans — part of Newable — has become the first non-bank lender accredited under the UK Export Finance’s General Export Facility (GEF) programme.

The company joins the initiative’s existing five lenders — HSBC, Santander, Barclays, Lloyds and NatWest.

Through the new accreditation, Newable will be providing working capital facilities of up to £150,000 to exporting businesses, which can be used to support new contract wins or to provide additional working capital to exporting businesses.

To be eligible for support, businesses must meet several criteria, including showing that in any one of the last three financial years, at least 20% of annual turnover has been made up of UK export sales, or that in each of the last three financial years, at least 5% of annual turnover has been made up of UK export sales.

Philip Reynolds, MD of lending at Newable, said: “Being the first non-bank to be accredited under the GEF scheme is a huge step forward in improving smaller businesses’ access to funding to support export growth. 

Chris Manson, CEO at Newable, added: “Newable has successfully delivered the international trade advice service on behalf of the government for the last 15 years and we have used this accumulated knowledge and ongoing support from UKEF to develop an SME export funding product, which is both unique and has the potential to help many UK SMEs.”

Carl Williamson, head of trade finance at UK Export Finance, stated: “We launched the GEF to offer much more flexible support to small businesses to help their export journey. 

“It’s great to have Newable join the list of established lenders already issuing GEF facilities. 

“By adding non-bank lenders and alternative finance providers to the scheme, we can help even more SME exporters use our guarantee and secure general working capital to help them export.”    

The GEF programme was launched in December 2020 and was first available in March 2021 to provide exporting SMEs access to working capital to support through their Covid-19 recovery journey.

According to the Minister for Exports Mike Freer, more than £120m worth of loans have now been issued to UK exporters using the scheme, boosting businesses in sectors from online retail to renewable energy.

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