Newable, the only non-bank lender participating in a UK Export Finance (UKEF) guarantee scheme, has stopped providing new loans through the programme in a blow to small exporters.
The London-headquartered company was one of the lenders in the General Export Facility (GEF) that offered small-ticket loans to SMEs. The segment is often overlooked by banks, which typically view such lending as unprofitable.
“Newable has informed customers that it has paused new applications to UKEF’s General Export Facility,” a UKEF spokesperson tells GTR. “Existing GEF facilities provided by Newable are unaffected by this decision. Firms will continue to be supported under their agreed terms and conditions.”
Newable was removed from UKEF’s list of participants in the GEF on June 9. The remaining 12 participants are all banks.
Newable Business Loans, the entity through which it provided export finance, also applied to cancel its authorisation by the Financial Conduct Authority, the UK’s financial regulator, on May 13.
Newable offers other products designed for exporters, according to its website, including single invoice finance, a flexible term finance facility, and internal payment services through Ebury.
The company confirmed the GEF application pause but did not respond to questions about whether it is continuing to offer export finance or other business loans outside of the UKEF programme. Newable Business Loans reported a post-tax profit of £793,927 in the 2024 fiscal year, from revenue of £3.2mn.
The firm secured a £70mn credit line from three funders in November 2024, which it said it would use “to help hundreds of SMEs each year and provide the funding to launch additional products that integrate working capital, foreign exchange and international payments”.
The primary funder, Quilam Capital, did not respond to a request for comment from GTR.
UKEF seeks new lenders
Launched in 2019, the GEF was designed to expand UKEF’s coverage to meet exporters’ general working capital needs, instead of tying the agency’s support to specific export contracts.
Newable’s participation in the programme from 2021 was aimed at broadening UKEF support to small businesses, which often require low-value, short-term loans that are unattractive to UK banks because of low margins, high compliance costs and limited relationship benefits.
“Being the first non-bank to be accredited under the GEF scheme is a huge step forward in improving smaller businesses’ access to funding to support export growth,” Newable’s head of lending, Phil Reynolds, said at the time.
Reynolds told a GTR UK panel in 2024 that the firm generally lends to companies with a turnover of under £10mn per year.
To date, Newable has funded 529 transactions worth £28mn using UKEF guarantees under the GEF, the agency says.
Some of these deals were showcased in UKEF advertising to promote the GEF, including a £100,000 loan to battery maker AceOn Group, detailed in a Daily Telegraph advert last year.
UKEF says it is trying to attract new non-bank lenders to the GEF programme to replace Newable.
“We’re currently in active discussions with non-bank financial institutions for onboarding over the coming months,” the agency’s spokesperson says.
UKEF has previously been rebuked by lawmakers for not helping enough SMEs. In a five-year business plan unveiled last year, it set a target of supporting 1,000 SMEs annually by 2029.
Speaking on the GTR UK panel last June, Reynolds suggested the GEF could be improved by applying UKEF’s guarantee to a larger pool of liquidity from which financial institutions could lend, rather than offering 80% cover on a per-transaction basis.
UKEF says it charges a “risk-based premium” to GEF lenders “to enable us to operate at no net cost to the taxpayer over time”.
This article was amended on June 17 to remove a reference to Newable being the only GEF lender to provide small-ticket loans to SMEs. A UKEF spokesperson said banks participating in the scheme also provide such loans.
