The Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) is a UK government-guaranteed lending scheme intended to help smaller viable businesses who may be struggling to secure finance, by facilitating bank loans of between £1,000 and £1 million.
It is intended to enable banks to lend to viable small businesses who are unable to provide the security that the bank would otherwise require. The government announced the launch of the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme (EFG) in November 2008 to provide targeted intervention for viable SMEs, close to the margins on risk, who could not access debt finance during times of tight credit conditions. EFG replaced the previous Small Firms Loan Guarantee scheme.
Under the scheme, the decision on whether or not to lend rests solely with the participating bank. The Government meets some of the bad debt costs incurred by the lender on the scheme loans. The borrower pays interest and fees to the participating bank on normal commercial terms; and in addition the borrower pays a quarterly fee to the Government.
In total, for its first period from January 2009 to March 2010 the Government announced that it would support a total of up to £1,300 million loans under the scheme. For its second period from April 2010 to March 2011 the Government announced that it would support a total of up to £500m loans under the scheme.
Read more about Enterprise Finance Guarantee: Details, Main Principles, Eligibility, Purpose of Facility, Comparison With Its Predecessor, The Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme, SFLG, Progress On EFG, References
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