News

British Business Bank publishes Annual Report showing strong results and impressive growth

The British Business Bank, the UK’s national economic development bank, has today published its Annual Reports and Accounts for 2016-17, demonstrating significant growth in the delivery of its programmes to support small businesses.

In 2016/17, the Bank delivered robust results against all four of its objectives:

  1. Increasing the supply of finance to smaller businesses – total stock of finance provided through Bank programmes rising by 24% to £9.2bn
  2. Helping create a more diverse finance market for smaller businesses – 94% of the support we offer is delivered through smaller, newer or alternative finance providers[1] (this is up from 90% in 2015/16)
  3. Promoting better information in the market – 50% of SMEs (up from 48% in 2015/16) are demonstrating heightened awareness of a range of finance options
  4. Achieving the above while managing taxpayers’ money efficiently – an increase to 4%[2] adjusted return on capital employed, exceeding the target set by Government for a third consecutive year

Today’s results cap a significant year for the Government-owned Bank in which: we launched our first regionally-focused fund – the £400m Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund; we prepared for the combination with the Start Up Loans Company that occurred on 1st April; and we were awarded an additional £400m from the 2016 Autumn Budget to support later stage venture capital.

Highlights for 2016-17 include:

  • Over 59,000 small and medium sized companies now receiving a loan or investment through our programmes
  • An additional £717m committed through delivery partners to increase supply of finance to the market
  • The Enterprise Capital Funds (ECF) programme, dedicated to early stage venture capital, now has a total investment capacity of £950m.
  • British Business Bank Investments Ltd, the commercial arm of the British Business Bank, has now committed over £580m to providers of finance to UK SMEs.
  • A broadening of the criteria for the Bank’s ENABLE Funding programme, VC Catalyst and Enterprise Finance Guarantee to open them up to a broader range of finance providers.
  • Launching Help To Grow, a new programme that targets smaller businesses with high growth potential, with Lloyds Bank and OakNorth as the first two lenders.
  • Increasing the number of delivery partners to over 100.

Keith Morgan, CEO of the British Business Bank said: “Over the past year, we have delivered strongly against our four key performance indicators, broadening our support to provide more finance and extra choice for smaller businesses, at all stages of their growth.

“It has been a year of significant expansion for the Bank and, as our market impact continues to grow, we are well placed to respond flexibly to challenges ahead, helping to increase the amount and range of finance available to smaller UK businesses.”

Lord Smith of Kelvin, Chair of the British Business Bank said: “By the start of 2016/17, the British Business Bank had successfully moved from start-up phase to delivering strongly against a significantly evolving political and economic background. Over the year it has substantially scaled up its programmes and broadened its support for smaller businesses across the UK.

“I am delighted to be chairing the Bank as it moves into a new phase of helping our vitally important small businesses realise their potential in a post Brexit environment.”

The British Business Bank Annual Report and Accounts 2016-17 is available at annualreport2017.british-business-bank.co.uk.

 

ENDS

British Business Bank

For more information and smaller business case studies contact:

James Pignon, MHP Communications, +44 20 3128 8755, bbb@mhpc.com

Scott Shearer, British Business Bank, Scott.Shearer@british-business-bank.co.uk

 

Notes to Editors

About the British Business Bank

The British Business Bank is the UK’s national economic development bank.  Established in November 2014, its mission is to make finance markets for smaller businesses work more effectively, enabling those businesses to prosper, grow and build UK economic activity. Our remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.

British Business Bank programmes support more than £3.4bn of finance to more than 59,000 smaller businesses and participate in a further £5.8bn finance to small mid-cap businesses (as at year-end 2016-17).

As well as increasing both supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of the finance options, including asset finance, available to smaller businesses. It has published the Business Finance Guide (in partnership with the ICAEW, and a further 21 business and finance organisations). This guide impartially sets out the range finance options available to businesses – from start-ups to SMEs and growing mid-sized companies.  Take the interactive journey at www.thebusinessfinanceguide.co.uk/bbb or download/print a copy.

 

[1] Measured as activity outside of the big four banks

[2] The Bank’s performance is measured on the basis of the return generated from assets on its own balance as well as the assets it manages that are on the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s balance sheet.