As a small to medium-sized enterprise, you may have viable business plans that need funding, and for which a loan would be appropriate. However, you may be unable to obtain a conventional loan because you do not have assets to offer as security. The Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme (EFG) helps to overcome this by providing lenders with a government guarantee against default in certain circumstances.

The EFG is a joint venture between the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and a number of participating lenders.

The main features and criteria of the scheme are:

• A guarantee to the lender covering 75 per cent of the loan amount, for which the borrower pays a 2 per cent premium on the outstanding balance of the loan, payable to BERR.

• The ability to guarantee loans of up to £1million and with terms of up to ten years.

• Availability to qualifying UK businesses with an annual turnover of up to £25million

• Availability to businesses in most sectors and for most business purposes, although there are some restrictions.

For further details visit the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills website.