UK Export Finance (UKEF) has secured a new non-bank financier for a facility designed to help small and medium exporters access working capital.
Business lender White Oak UK will join the 13 banks on the general export facility (GEF), several months after the only other non-bank lender, Newable, left the scheme and exited business lending altogether.
Attracting non-bank lenders to GEF is intended to help UKEF hit its target of supporting 1,000 SMEs per year by the end of the decade, and comes as small and medium exporters report stagnant or falling export orders.
White Oak UK is an affiliate of White Oak Global Advisors, a San Francisco-headquartered investment advisor that offers asset-based lending, invoice finance, factoring and trade finance.
The financier’s participation “will enhance UKEF’s capacity to serve SMEs who require smaller value finance to meet demand for new orders or increase export volumes”, UKEF said in a statement.
“Increasing the choice of lenders for our customers is a key part of our plan to widen the accessibility of export finance to businesses of all sizes across the UK, especially smaller firms and those who may not have previously considered export finance options,” UKEF chief executive Tim Reid said.
Small firms’ export ambitions can be hobbled by difficulty accessing trade finance and working capital, because the small sums involved and lack of a broader relationship make such lending unprofitable for most large banks.
GEF allows lenders to secure a UKEF guarantee of up to 80% on short-term financing of under £25mn to businesses that have made at least 20% of their turnover from exports in at least one of the preceding three years.
The announcement comes a day after a British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) survey found “weak” sentiment among UK exporters, particularly among small and micro businesses.
Only 16% of micro firms – those that have fewer than 10 employees – reported higher export orders in the third quarter of this year, compared to six in 10 that said orders remained flat, and around a quarter that reported a fall in orders.
On the other hand, 42% of large exporters – those with more than 250 staff – reported higher export orders during the quarter, and only one in 10 said orders had shrunk.
“The growing disparity between the experience of the UK’s largest and smallest exporters is deeply concerning,” said William Bain, head of trade policy at the BCC. “It underlines our call for urgent government action, in partnership with business, to help smaller firms reap the benefits of trade.”
UKEF said most of the £771mn guaranteed under GEF since 2020 had gone to SMEs. Overall, the agency provided some level of support to 496 small and medium firms in 2024-25, according to its annual report.
