The British Business Bank has agreed to increase its funding facility with Performance Finance Limited to a maximum of 30 million pounds, up from an original 15 million pound facility completed in April 2024, a move that matters broadly because it expands funding available to a specialist lender serving professionals nationwide, and matters specifically to accountancy professionals because Performance Finance's core client base includes accountants seeking finance for tax bills, practice purchases, equipment and professional indemnity insurance.

The British Business Bank is the UK government's economic development bank, providing wholesale funding and guarantees to specialist lenders to improve access to finance for smaller businesses.

Performance Finance is a Kettering-based specialist lender founded in 2003, providing leases, hire purchase, business and personal loans, and tax and professional indemnity insurance funding to professionals including accountants, solicitors, barristers, dentists, opticians and vets.

Michael Strevens, managing director for structured financial institutions solutions at the British Business Bank, pointed to "the important role specialist lenders play" in getting the right finance to smaller businesses at the right time.

The increase fits a pattern rather than standing alone. The British Business Bank has separately agreed facilities with Propel Finance, Allica Bank and DF Capital in recent months, part of a broader strategy of channelling wholesale funding through niche lenders that understand specific sectors better than generalist banks do.

For accountants, that sector knowledge has a direct practical use: Performance Finance underwrites tax bill loans and PII insurance funding specifically because it understands the seasonal cash flow pressures and regulatory obligations particular to accountancy practices, rather than treating an accountant's borrowing needs like any other small business's.

For the sector, the equivalent architecture already exists: the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland performs a similar wholesale funding role, channelling low-cost credit through on-lending partners to Irish SMEs, including professional practices seeking comparable practice, equipment and working capital finance.

Source: The Intermediary / British Business Bank / SBCI