The government’s export credit agency, UK Export Finance (UKEF), is getting a 20% increase to its budget to improve its support for UK exporters.

The additional funding was revealed in the latest government spending review and follows a record year for UKEF in 2020-21.

According to the agency, UKEF provided the highest level of support for UK businesses in 30 years with £12.3bn credited to 549 UK businesses, supporting up to 107,000 UK jobs.

Greater reach

The new resource will allow UKEF to reach more customers, reports Business Daily.

This includes expanding its network of international export finance executives across priority overseas markets, and strengthening its risk management, underwriting and cyber security capacity.

Louis Taylor, CEO of UKEF said: “UKEF has been central to the government’s response to the pandemic and this increase will allow us to continue to support UK exporters as they bounce back from the pandemic and take advantage of new trading opportunities for British businesses across the world.”

Green exports

Some of the new funds will support UKEF to reach its net zero commitments, increasing support for green projects as outlined in its climate change strategy which it launched in September.

UKEF has committed to decarbonising its financial portfolio and to increasing support for ‘green exports’ as part of its efforts to become a ‘net zero’ organisation by 2050.

The budget increase comes as Britain’s fastest-growing firms are calling on the DIT to offer more tailored support to help them expand overseas, as covered in yesterday’s IOE&IT Daily Update.