Fifth Third Bank is offering four additional loan products under the US Small Business Administration (SBA) programme to help its customers extend their credit and financing options.

The CapLines programme will offer the bank’s small business customers access to revolving credit facilities to finance contracts and address short-term and cyclical working capital needs.

The SBA export express programme helps small businesses to develop or expand their export markets and provides exporters and lenders with a streamlined method to obtain SBA-backed financing for loans and lines of credit up to US$500,000. The programme also temporarily provides lenders with a guarantee of up to 90% on export loans as a credit enhancement, to encourage participating banks to increase their lending capacity.

The SBA international trade loan programme will offer small businesses with financing options to support export transactions while helping them to enter and expand into international markets. The loan offers a combination of fixed asset, working capital and debt financing options.

Meanwhile, the SBA patriot express loan programme will assist veterans and members of the military community to establish or expand their small businesses. It can be used for most business purposes and current spouses or widowed spouses of a service member or veteran may also be eligible to participate, Fifth Third Bank says.

Dave Jackson, Fifth Third Bank’s vice-president and national SBA director says: “The needs of today’s small business owners and entrepreneurs have changed over the past few years. These loan products address those changing needs and help small businesses access working capital to navigate our global business landscape.”

Part of President Obama’s start-up America initiative, the new SBIC programme aims to allocate US$1bn over the next five years, and hopes to address the general shortage of venture capital for emerging companies looking to raise between US$1mn and US$4mn.