Banking and investment services

Tender description

The Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise have gathered a body of evidence which clearly indicates that demand for finance is not being fully met during the current economic conditions. The Scottish Government published a report in August 2015 entitled ‘The Market for SME Finance in Scotland’ which estimates that a Scottish lending gap exists in the range of 330 000 000 GBP to 750 000 000 GBP, with loans up to 1 000 000 GBP being considered the most challenging to obtain. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are essential to the Scottish economy and in delivering Scotland's Economic Strategy and a key factor in helping SMEs to grow, innovate, create jobs and seek opportunities in new markets is access to appropriate finance. Availability and accessibility of finance therefore underpins, and is an integral part of, an integrated approach to sustained company growth. It is therefore our intention to establish a new Scottish SME Debt Fund to help address this market gap. We have gathered a body of evidence which clearly indicates that demand for finance is not being fully met during the current economic conditions. The Scottish Government report ‘The Market for SME Finance in Scotland’ which estimates that a Scottish lending gap exists in the range of 330 000 000 GBP to 750 000 000 GBP, with loans up to 1 000 000 GBP being considered the most challenging to obtain. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are essential to the Scottish economy and in delivering Scotland's Economic Strategy and a key factor in helping SMEs to grow, innovate, create jobs and seek opportunities in new markets is access to appropriate finance. Availability and accessibility of finance therefore underpins, and is an integral part of, an integrated approach to sustained company growth. It is therefore our intention establish a new Scottish SME Debt Fund to help address this market gap. An Open tender process will identify a Fund Manager to provide this service. The contract will not be divided into lots as this would make the execution of the contract excessively technically difficult.