Steve Box, International CEO at BFS, (pictured above) said: “Our new funding agreement signals our commitment to SMEs and will enable businesses throughout Europe to invest, recruit and grow with confidence.”

Part of the 208-year-old family business, the Bibby Line Group, BFS supports 2,000 European SMEs, outside of the UK, through its range of funding options. Its financing solutions include invoice discounting, factoring, trade, export finance and foreign exchange.

The agreement with HSBC allows BFS’s European subsidiaries, outside of the UK, to access funds to help SMEs to connect to trading opportunities both domestically and internationally.

Dan Howlett, HSBC’s head of corporate banking, said: “Bibby Financial Services has ambitious plans to support customers investing for growth across Europe. With our global reach, connectivity and strong capital base, HSBC is in a prime position to help corporate businesses explore domestic and global opportunities."

Box added: “Our aim is to continuously grow our funding support for businesses, working closely with our banking partners to fuel economic growth throughout Europe.

“Businesses across the world are becoming more aware of the range of financing options available to them and our new funding availability will enable us to respond to an increasing demand for receivables and trade finance.”

Following the UK’s vote to leave the EU on 23 June 2016, Bibby Financial Services global chief executive, David Postings, said: “The UK’s vote to leave the EU will not impact our commitment to supporting our clients’ businesses. It is very much business as usual for us and we will continue to support SMEs, wherever they are, through our relationship-based approach and specialist funding solutions.

“We have a clear and ambitious strategy in place to grow our business and we’re committed to the markets we operate within. We will continue to invest, and to increase our support for businesses across the world, in line with this strategy.”

BFS supports working capital requirements for SMEs trading in a business-to-business capacity from start-ups to businesses with a turnover of up to £10 million. It has more than 30 operations throughout Europe, including Poland, Germany, France, Slovakia, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK.