There is no government portal for the Growth Guarantee Scheme. The only way in is through a lender the British Business Bank has accredited, and the lender you pick decides what you can borrow, in what form, and at what price. More than 70 lenders have been accredited since the scheme launched in July 2024 (British Business Bank), from the big high street banks to asset finance houses and regional community lenders.
This page is the practical half of the story: who the lenders are, how HSBC’s version works, how the big banks compare, and how to choose. For what the scheme actually is, what the 70% guarantee protects and when it is worth using at all, start with our plain-English guide: the guarantee is for the bank, not you.
The essentials, so the list below makes sense. GGS backs five types of finance: term loans, overdrafts, invoice finance, asset finance and asset-based lending. Facilities run from £25,001 for term loans and overdrafts, and from as little as £1,000 for asset, invoice and asset-based finance, up to £2 million per business group (£1 million under the Northern Ireland Protocol). Terms stretch to six years for loans and asset finance, three years for the rest. The scheme runs until 31 March 2030, and you repay every penny you borrow (British Business Bank).
How the HSBC Growth Guarantee Scheme works
HSBC is the lender people search for most, so here it is in full. HSBC UK is accredited and offers GGS as a term loan of £25,001 to £2 million (£1 million for Northern Ireland Protocol businesses), on terms of up to six years, with fixed and variable rate options and monthly or quarterly repayments. The variable option is an agreed margin over a reference rate such as the Bank of England base rate, so repayments rise and fall with it (HSBC).
The costs are unusually transparent for this market. HSBC charges a 1.5% arrangement fee on loans between £25,001 and £299,999, negotiable on loans of £300,000 to £2 million; under the scheme rules the borrower pays nothing for the guarantee itself. Capital repayment holidays of up to 24 months are available across the life of the loan, subject to credit assessment, though taking one means higher repayments afterwards and more interest overall.
Eligibility through HSBC is the standard scheme test: UK-based, group turnover of £45 million or less, more than half your income from trading, a proposition HSBC judges viable, and not a business in difficulty. Two extra wrinkles matter. You must not have breached the terms of a Covid-era guaranteed loan, and borrowing you took under those schemes can reduce the maximum GGS amount you are offered. Security is decided case by case and can include a personal guarantee, but a guarantor’s principal private residence will not be taken as security regardless of loan size.
There are three ways in. HSBC runs an online GGS application portal where you review the information and upload the required documents; existing customers can instead go through their relationship manager; and businesses new to HSBC can apply by phone through its business banking team after completing onboarding. One line from HSBC worth holding onto: if it can offer you a commercial loan on better terms without the guarantee, it will do so, which tells you GGS is the fallback route, not the discount aisle.
The accredited lenders list (checked 3 July 2026)
The British Business Bank puts the count at more than 70 lenders and updates its list whenever a new accreditation is confirmed, so treat the official page as the live master copy. The table below covers every lender we could verify on it when we checked on 3 July 2026, including all of the major banks and the main specialists; a handful of further names on the official page will not appear here. Not every lender offers every finance type: the official page lets you filter by term loans, overdrafts, invoice finance, asset finance and asset-based lending.
| Lender | Type of lender |
|---|---|
| Aldermore | Specialist bank |
| Allica Bank | Business bank |
| Arbuthnot Commercial Asset Based Lending | Asset-based lending |
| Arbuthnot Latham | Private and commercial bank |
| Arkle Finance | Asset finance |
| ART Business Loans | Community lender (West Midlands) |
| Atom Bank | Digital bank |
| Bank of Scotland | High street bank |
| Barclays | High street bank |
| BCRS Business Loans | Community lender (West Midlands) |
| Big Issue Invest | Social investor |
| BLG Development Finance | Development finance |
| Business Enterprise Fund | Community lender (North of England) |
| Business Finance Cumbria | Community lender (Cumbria) |
| Close Brothers - Braemar | Asset finance |
| Close Brothers Asset Finance | Asset finance |
| Close Brothers Invoice Finance | Invoice finance |
| Compass Business Finance | Asset finance |
| Creative Growth Finance | Sector lender (creative industries) |
| CWRT (Coventry and Warwickshire Reinvestment Trust) | Community lender |
| Danske Bank | High street bank (Northern Ireland) |
| DSL Business Finance | Community lender (Scotland) |
| Finance For Enterprise | Community lender (Yorkshire) |
| First Enterprise | Community lender (East Midlands) |
| FSE Group | Regional fund manager |
| Funding Circle | Lending platform |
| Genesis Asset Finance | Asset finance |
| Haydock Finance | Asset finance |
| HSBC | High street bank |
| Investec | Specialist bank |
| Kingsway Asset Finance | Asset finance |
| Let’s Do Business Finance | Community lender (South East) |
| Lloyds Bank | High street bank |
| Momenta Finance | Specialist lender |
| NatWest | High street bank |
| Newable | Community lender (London and South East) |
| Novuna Business Cash Flow | Invoice finance |
| Novuna Business Finance | Asset finance |
| Paragon Bank | Specialist bank |
| Propel Finance | Asset finance |
| Resonance | Social investor |
| River Capital | Regional lender (North West) |
| Robert Owen Community Banking | Community lender (Wales) |
| Royal Bank of Scotland | High street bank |
| Santander | High street bank (via Corporate & Commercial Banking) |
| Shire Leasing | Asset finance |
| Simply Asset Finance | Asset finance |
| Skipton Business Finance | Invoice finance |
| Social Investment Scotland | Social investor (Scotland) |
| South West Investment Group (SWIG) | Community lender (South West) |
| Time Finance | Asset finance |
| Tower Leasing | Asset finance and leasing |
| UKSE | Regional investor (steel areas) |
| Ulster Bank | High street bank (Northern Ireland) |
| Virgin Money | Bank |
Two housekeeping notes. Accreditations change: lenders join as the British Business Bank confirms them, and a lender can stop writing new GGS business, so check the official page before you build a shortlist around one name. And accreditation is not an endorsement of price: every lender sets its own rates, fees and appetite.
The big banks compared
Where the major banks publish their GGS terms, here is how they line up. Blank cells mean the lender does not publish that detail; ask for it in writing when you apply.
| Lender | GGS products | Size range | Terms | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HSBC | Term loans | £25,001 to £2m | Up to 6 years | 1.5% fee below £300k, negotiable above; fixed or variable; open to new customers |
| Barclays | Loans | £25,001 to £2m | 3 months to 6 years | Applications by phone or call-back |
| Lloyds Bank | Loans | £25,001 to £2m | 1 to 6 years | A Lloyds business current account is not required |
| NatWest | Range of GGS facilities | £1,000 to £2m depending on product | Varies by product | Apply through your relationship manager or usual contact |
| Santander | Loans, overdrafts, revolving credit | £25,001 to £2m | 3 months to 6 years (loans); up to 3 years (overdrafts) | Via Santander Corporate & Commercial Banking only, not Business Banking |
The Santander point catches people out: its Business Banking arm does not take part in the scheme, so smaller Santander customers are routed through the Corporate and Commercial relationship team, which raises GGS as an option after a normal lending application if it fits (Santander).
Eligibility criteria: the tests every lender applies
The scheme rules are the same wherever you apply (British Business Bank):
- Turnover of £45 million or less, measured across your business group.
- Trading in the UK, with, for most businesses, more than 50% of turnover from trading activity; charities and further education colleges are exempt from the 50% test. (For businesses in scope of the Northern Ireland Protocol, lower borrowing caps apply in some sectors, such as agriculture and fishery or aquaculture production.)
- A viable proposition. The lender applies its standard credit and fraud checks and lends at its own discretion.
- Not a business in difficulty, including relevant insolvency proceedings.
- Not an excluded organisation. Banks, building societies, insurers and reinsurers (insurance brokers are fine), public sector bodies and state-funded primary and secondary schools cannot use the scheme, and applications must come from a business, not an individual (sole traders and partners acting for a partnership are fine).
- Subsidy headroom. A GGS facility counts as a subsidy under the Minimal Financial Assistance rules: at most £315,000 of subsidy per group over the current and two previous fiscal years. Your lender tells you the subsidy value of the facility, and previous Covid-scheme support counts towards your position.
- Covid loans are not a bar. A Bounce Back, CBILS, CLBILS or RLS facility taken before 30 June 2024 does not block a GGS application, though it can reduce the maximum you are offered.
How the 70% government guarantee works
The government promises the lender it will cover 70% of the outstanding balance if you default, and only after the lender has been through its normal recovery process, including calling on any personal guarantee. Nothing is written off for you: the borrower remains 100% liable for the whole debt. The guarantee exists to make lenders comfortable saying yes to businesses slightly outside their normal appetite, which is exactly why the scheme is useful and exactly why it should not be mistaken for protection. We work a £100,000 default through step by step in the main guide.
You pay no fee for the guarantee. Lenders pay a scheme fee to the government and are required to pass the economic benefit of the guarantee through to the borrower. The one hard borrower protection in the rules: neither your principal private residence nor a guarantor’s can be taken as security under the scheme, at any lender.
GGS vs a standard business loan
A GGS facility is priced like a commercial loan, because it is one: the lender sets the rate, an arrangement fee is common, and variable rates move with the base rate. The honest comparison is therefore not “GGS versus nothing” but “GGS versus the commercial offer”. If a bank will lend to you on equal or better terms without the guarantee, take that; HSBC says in terms that it will offer the commercial route where it can. GGS earns its keep when the commercial answer is no, or yes-but-worse: not enough security, a thin trading history, or a bigger ask than the bank’s normal appetite. Whichever route you are quoted, compare offers on total cost, rate plus fees over the full term, not the headline rate; our business loan repayment calculator does that sum in two minutes.
How to choose a lender
Start with the product, not the brand. If you need £15,000 for a machine, the £25,001 term loan floor rules out most banks, but asset finance under GGS starts at £1,000, which points the shortlist at the asset finance houses on the list. If cash is tied up in unpaid invoices, the invoice finance specialists are the natural fit.
Ask your own bank first, but not only. Your bank sees your account history, which speeds up the viability conversation. A no from one accredited lender does not carry to any other, and appetite genuinely differs: sector preferences, minimum sizes and security asks all vary.
Compare total cost in writing. Rate, arrangement fee, any broker fee, early repayment terms. A lower rate with a fat fee can cost more than the reverse over a short term.
Check the security ask before you sign. Personal guarantees are at the lender’s discretion and common. If one is requested, that is the moment for independent advice, and remember the floor: your home cannot be part of it.
Consider the community lenders for smaller or local cases. The regional community lenders and social investors on the list exist for viable businesses the big banks under-serve. They tend to lend smaller amounts with more hand-holding, and several are the only realistic route in their area for sub-£100k propositions the banks decline.
The list will keep moving while the scheme runs to 2030, so bookmark the British Business Bank page for the live version, and go into any application knowing the one thing the scheme never changes: the loan is yours to repay in full.
