Today marks the 1 year anniversary of our partnership with the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland
Key to helping SMEs get the funding they need in order to grow is providing the platform for businesses to access the full breadth of funding options available to them.
Last year, the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) demonstrated innovation in this area by launching an SME-focused initial fund of €45 million in partnership with Bibby Financial Services Ireland (BFSI). Since its launch, the fund has provided €30m of funding, supporting Irish SMEs operating in a variety of sectors.
The fund is an extension of SBCI’s on-going efforts to drive competition and choice in the Irish lending market and enables businesses to access favourable rates with a discount of up to 1.5% on BFSI’s existing invoice finance facilities.
Invoice financing, a business-to-business solution, offers immediate access to cash tied-up in invoices by providing businesses upfront payment against the value of the outstanding invoice. It is simple and speedy to set up and, because it is linked directly to the value of trade debtors, it grows in line with the SME requirement. This is a huge advantage over other forms of finance as the visibility of debt being funded allows us to tailor funding to individual needs, often providing greater levels of funding than an overdraft or loan, for instance.
Among the benefits of invoice finance include:
- Immediate access to cash tied up in trade debtors – up to 90% cash release
- Finance that grows in line with a business’s sales growth. The sales ledger is used to secure access to funds, so as your business grows, so does the amount of funds that can be made available;
- Eligible debt includes domestic and export sales;
- Bad Debt Protection (option to protect your business against customer insolvency);
- Disclosed and confidential facilities including option of full service credit control and sales ledger management tailored to suit a business; and
- Funding of up to €5m with minimum facility period of 24 months to avail of the SBCI lower rates.
To avail of the lower-cost funding, companies must be independent enterprises employing fewer than 250 persons, with an annual turnover not exceeding €50m and/or an annual balance sheet under €43m.
Nowadays businesses need to act very fast to avail of opportunities that are out there, and they cannot afford to wait weeks or even months for credit decisions. At BFSI, we commit to decisions being returned within days, and we make sure that our clients do not lose out on opportunities as a result of our inability to make decisions.
BFSI is committed to keeping the ambitions of Irish businesses moving, ensuring that viable businesses of all sizes have certainty with access to the necessary finance which will enable them to grow and expand their business.