GLE oneLondon and Lloyds Bank have announced the launch of the innovative London Loan Fund supported by the European Investment Fund (EIF) under the Progress Microfinance initiative. Lloyds has provided a £5 million fund which GLE will lend on to over 270 micro businesses in London providing them with another way to raise finance.

The fund uses UK tax incentives and EU-backed guarantees to make the costly process of a detailed appraisal of the ‘person and their proposition’ commercially viable for smaller value and unsecured, small business lending. The new fund is an alternative source of funding which will lend money to small and micro businesses in London. With support from the EIF, the London Loan Fund benefits from a guarantee issued under the European Progress Microfinance initiative established by the European Union.

In order to launch the London Loan Fund, GLE oneLondon, the EIF and Lloyds Bank held a joint event on 30^th April 2014. At the event, GLE oneLondon and Lloyds Bank presented the sustainable model in a panel discussion chaired by Sir Michael Snyder. The panel members also discussed the finance needs of UK SMEs. Speakers at the event included:

• Sir Michael Snyder, Senior Partner, Kingston Smith LLP and chairman of the fund*
• Tim Hinton, Managing Director, SME & Mid Markets Banking, Commercial Banking, Lloyds Banking Group;
• Peter Thackwray OBE, Managing Director GLE Enterprise Development;
• George Passaris, Head of Securitisation, European Investment Fund;

Tim Hinton, MD, SME and Mid Markets Banking, Lloyds Banking Group, said:

“Through this partnership with GLE, we are giving London’s smallest businesses another avenue through which they can borrow and we will be able to reach businesses that need a different level of support. We have grown our lending to SMEs by six percent over the past year, bucking the industry trend, but we want to ensure that even more small businesses – whether or not they are our customers – get the funding they need to invest and grow.”

Peter Thackwray OBE, Managing Director, GLE Enterprise Development explains:

“This fund is a clever and very innovative way for small businesses to access finance provided by Lloyds Bank. Certainly, it is an exciting new development and we are extremely grateful to the entrepreneurialism of Lloyds Bank and the support of the EIF for backing our innovative idea, which we hope will be a model for much larger funds in the future. With the London Loan Fund we will aim to replicate the model on an ever-increasing scale to help UK’s small businesses gain finance, which they need to grow.”

George Passaris, Head of Securitisation at the European Investment Fund comments:

“We are pleased to be signing this guarantee agreement under the Progress Microfinance initiative with GLE Loan Finance in London. This organisation, set up to provide microfinance to disadvantaged groups in deprived areas will be instrumental in helping micro-entrepreneurs to get their projects off the ground and will contribute to the economic growth and social inclusion in some of the most difficult neighbourhoods of London.”

Sir Michael Snyder, Chairman of the London Loan Fund and Senior Partner of top 20 accountancy firm Kingston Smith LLP, comments:

“As senior partner of Kingston Smith and having spent over 35 years advising London-based SMEs, I am delighted to be taking part in this initiative, which will help small businesses in London get access to the funds they need to start up and grow.”

Micro-enterprises wishing to apply for a micro-loan under Progress Microfinance can directly contact: [email protected]