Vince Cable’s business bank kicks off with £300m fund

Vince Cable’s business bank launched yesterday with a £300m state funding to boost lending to small and medium-sized businesses.

The money will be the first slice of £1bn of new capital funding allocated to the new business bank.

The bank will be fully operational only by mid-2014 but businesses who want to bid for the cash were told to apply by the end of May.

The government will provide a maximum of 50% of each investment with the money to be matched by private sector investors.

“Small and medium sized businesses are still telling me that access to finance is their number one problem, preventing them from investing and growing,” said business secretary Vince Cable.

“That’s why through the business bank we are developing a range of measures to provide businesses with the power to choose the type of finance that suits them.”