UKEF and British Business Bank launch guarantee plan for smaller exporters

UK Export Finance and the British Business Bank are developing a joint portfolio guarantee scheme designed to increase access to working capital and term lending for smaller exporters.

The scheme is expected to launch in spring 2027 and will target SMEs with export ambitions that struggle to obtain lower-value financing from commercial lenders.

UKEF will guarantee a portion of eligible losses across participating loan portfolios, while lenders will retain part of the risk.

The British Business Bank will assess, onboard and manage participating commercial lenders. The portfolio structure is intended to lower delivery costs and allow lenders to provide export-related finance at greater scale.

Eligible facilities will include working capital loans and term lending, with the scheme open to SMEs across all sectors.

The programme is intended to address a persistent gap in export finance. Smaller businesses frequently require relatively modest facilities to finance stock, labour, materials, marketing or production before receiving payment from overseas customers.

These requirements can sit below the size preferred by specialist trade finance teams while still carrying additional complexity linked to export activity and overseas markets.

By applying guarantees across portfolios rather than assessing support one facility at a time, the institutions aim to make lower-value lending more commercially viable for banks and other participating lenders.

The structure differs from UKEF’s traditional transaction-specific guarantees and insurance products, which are often associated with individual export contracts or larger facilities.

UKEF’s nationwide Export Finance Manager network will work alongside the British Business Bank’s Local Growth Team to direct businesses towards the programme and other available support.

The announcement follows UKEF’s disclosure that it provided more than £11bn in loans, guarantees and insurance during 2025/26, supporting up to 85,000 jobs and contributing as much as £6.4bn to the UK economy.

The new joint scheme extends that support further into the smaller-business market and places working capital at the centre of efforts to increase the UK’s exporter base.

For lenders, the model could make it easier to build diversified portfolios of smaller export loans while retaining credit discipline and a share of the underlying risk.

For exporters, the aim is to provide finance earlier in the growth cycle, before they have developed the balance sheet, collateral or export history normally required for conventional bank lending.