£1.9m for businesses refused bank funding

MANCHESTER-based Business Finance Solutions has been given £1.9m funding through the Transitional Loan Fund to provide loans to businesses.

The money will be invested by BFS in companies that meet the lending criteria within the Manchester and Cheshire areas over the next two years.

The Northwest Regional Development Agency’s Transitional Loan Fund aims to help support businesses at a time when lending from mainstream sources is still particularly difficult to come by.

Paul Breen, fund operations manager for Business Finance Solutions, said: “The European Regional Development Funds received will enable us to assist more companies where banks and other lenders are unable to.

“In order to be eligible to receive funding, entrepreneurs must have tried to obtain finance from banks and building societies, but refused in part or whole.

“In the current economic climate, this is happening to more and more small businesses and we can offer an alternative way of enabling companies to reach their potential.”

Companies wishing to apply for a loan must be able to produce a workable business plan on application that demonstrates growth and the viability of the business, have been refused funding from mainstream sources in part or whole and be based within Manchester and Cheshire.