9.5 The private sector has typically financed PFI projects with a combination of all or some of the following: bank finance; debt raised in the capital markets with a credit guarantee; debt raised in the capital markets without a credit guarantee but rated by one of the established rating agencies and finance provided by the European Investment Bank, which usually benefits for part of or all of the project's life from a bank guarantee. In addition, a limited number of projects have been financed by the private sector without the involvement of third party finance.
9.6 The Government wishes to ensure that all the traditional means of funding PFI will continue to be available to be used by the private sector, with the private sector left in charge of the process for selecting which financial counterparty to engage in support of its bid. The Government's overall aim is to maintain a 'mixed economy' in finance provision:
• that there is healthy competition between different sources of finance, ensuring value for money;
• that the risks associated with the major investment programmes undertaken through PFI are spread in a sustainable fashion across a number of sources of credit;
• that the Government is not overly exposed to systemic market risk on one particular source of finance; and
• that the terms of credit support for the private sector are part of the tender process.