The Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) and Bibby Financial Services Ireland (BFSI) have today announced a new lower-cost invoice financing fund for Irish SMEs.

The initiative sees €45m in funding being made available to Irish businesses, enabling them to access favourable rates for BFSI's invoice finance facilities. Invoice financing frees up cash for businesses by providing upfront payment against the value of outstanding invoices.

BFSI is now SBCI’s first invoice finance partner, the fourth non-bank provider and seventh on-lending partner.

Finance minister Michael Noonan said that BFSI’s addition to the SBCI range of on-lenders will benefit Irish SMEs as well as those who served the UK market further afield.

He continued: “This new €45m package further diversifies the funding available to SMEs at a critical time for Irish businesses, especially those who include exports to the UK as part of their sales.

In Association with

“It is a welcome fact that Bibby Financial Services is a global business with a strong presence throughout the UK and Ireland.”

Stimulus

Steve Box, international CEO at Bibby Financial Services, said that the agreement will act as a stimulus to the Irish economy. “Our €45m facility agreed with SBCI will enable us to deliver lower cost, more flexible and competitive funding solutions to SMEs throughout Ireland,” he added.

“While there is still a high level of dependency on traditional banks amongst SMEs, we are seeing a growing appetite for alternative sources of finance and we look forward to helping Irish businesses to thrive and grow, both domestically and internationally.”

Bernard O’Hare, MD for BFS Ireland, said: “Fundamentally, we’re a relationship-based funder and we pride ourselves on providing responsive and flexible funding. It’s here that we can add real value, particularly at a time where immediate access to finance is more important than ever for Irish SMEs.”