Commercial Finance Specialists

Manufacturing businesses are set to benefit from the availability of a new £1 billion asset lending fund from the Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest.

A new £1 billion asset financing fund has been made available to manufacturing businesses in the UK by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and NatWest.

The fund will offer competitive commercial lending at fixed rates to stimulate investment and growth in the sector to aid its recovery.

Its launch follows feedback from customers in the sector that are anticipating growing demand for manufacturing services and products.

Chairman of business banking at NatWest and RBS Peter Ibbetson said: "We're beginning to see some encouraging signs for the manufacturing sector, but we can't forget the context they must be taken in, which is that this sector has been hit particularly hard by the recession and its return to full health will not happen overnight."

The new fund has been made available as figures from the Office for National Statistics indicate that manufacturing failed to grow for a second consecutive month in November 2009.