British Business Bank backs South West lender with £17.5m for underserved firms
What's the deal? The British Business Bank has allocated £17.5m to SWIG FinanceDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a regional social impact lender, to support smaller businesses across the South West of England that struggle to borrow from mainstream banks. The money will fund loans ranging from £25,001 to £250,000.
Who's behind it? SWIG Finance is a Community Development Finance Institution (CDFI), established in 1992 as a not-for-profit social enterprise. Since April 2009, it has invested more than £116m in 5,736 businesses, creating and safeguarding 10,484 jobs.
Why now? The allocation comes through the British Business Bank's Community ENABLE Funding programme, which channels funding to social impact lenders so they can pass it on locally. SWIG Finance is the seventh CDFI accredited under the programme, and the first with a dedicated focus on the South West.
What's the endgame? The programme is expected to support up to £150m of lending over its first two years, with one key objective being to grow the CDFI sector across the UK. CDFIs tend to have strong local knowledge of the businesses and communities they back, which helps remove barriers to finance.
What they say: Matt Wilde, managing director of SWIG Finance, called the allocation "a major milestone," adding that it "gives us the scale and long-term confidence to expand our lending and increase our impact."
Reinald de Monchy, chief banking officer at the British Business Bank, said the South West "is a region rich in untapped potential" and noted SWIG "has been a trusted lender in the South West for over three decades."
The signal: As mainstream banks tighten lending to viable but overlooked firms, community lenders with local reach are becoming a key channel for regional growth capital across the UK.
Read more: Cornish Stuff
