ENABLE Programmes

We support lenders such as banks and non-bank financial institutions unlock more lending to smaller businesses.

We are open to working with all lenders, subject to our eligibility criteria, and can structure solutions for a wide range of lending products.

ENABLE Guarantees

The ENABLE Guarantee programme is designed to encourage additional lending to smaller businesses.

Participating institutions are incentivised by a government-backed guarantee to support defined portfolios of debt finance in return for a fee.

The ENABLE Guarantee programme is open to all UK banks, UK branches of foreign banks, asset and asset-based finance providers as well as certain other categories of lenders which lend, or intend to lend, to viable small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the UK. To find out more and express an interest in participating in a transaction please view our Request for Proposals.

ENABLE Build

At Spring Statement 2019, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that ENABLE Build, a new variant of the programme, would be launched in April 2019 to make available up to £1bn of guarantee support for smaller housebuilder finance. The British Business Bank works alongside Homes England to deliver the ENABLE Build programme.

The ENABLE Build programme is open to UK incorporated banks and UK branches of overseas resident banks who provide development finance, or intend to provide development finance, to viable SMEs operating in the UK. To find out more and express an interest in participating in a transaction please view our Request for Proposals.

ENABLE Guarantee and Build performance

• The British Business Bank has live guarantee commitments to support portfolios of c. £1.5bn under its ENABLE Guarantee programme and £600m under ENABLE Build, which specifically supports SME housebuilders (as at the end of December 2023).
  • Programme transactions with ThinCats, Cynergy, and Cambridge & Counties Bank support loans to SMEs.
  • A transaction with DF Capital supports dealer floorplan finance to SMEs.
  • Transactions with United Trust Bank, Hampshire Trust Bank, and LendInvest specifically boost the SME housebuilding sector and support the development of new housing.

ENABLE Funding

In November 2014 we launched a new programme, ENABLE Funding, aimed at improving the provision of asset and lease finance to smaller UK businesses.

Providers of finance to smaller businesses often lack the scale required to access capital markets – a key source of funding for lending institutions – in a cost-efficient manner.

ENABLE Funding will warehouse newly-originated finance receivables from different originators – bringing them together into a new structure.

Once the structure has sufficient scale, it will refinance a portion of its funding on the capital markets. This means the British Business Bank can help small finance providers to tap institutional investors’ funds. If you provide asset or lease finance to smaller businesses or if you are a peer to peer lender that facilitates the provision of finance to smaller businesses and want to find out more, or express an interest in participating in ENABLE Funding, please download our Request for Proposals (.pdf - 250kb).

ENABLE Funding performance

• The British Business Bank has entered into nine transactions under its ENABLE Funding programme (as at the end of March 2023) and has committed more than £1bn to smaller finance providers.
• Since the first transaction in September 2015, the ENABLE Funding programme has supported lending to over 79,000 businesses and facilitated more than £2.1bn of finance (as at the end of March 2023).
• The first refinancing under ENABLE Funding was completed in 2022 with Propel, where a portion of the warehouse funding provided during the first phase of the programme was refinanced and replaced with institutional investors’ funds – in line with the programme’s objectives of supporting smaller finance providers to access capital markets funding.