10/08/2010
Bosses from the UK's top six banks are to head-up a new taskforce to boost the flow of credit to SME's, it has been announced.
The taskforce will examine the business lending market over the next two months, ascertaining ways to meet the growing demand for services important to small businesses, such as factoring and invoice discounting.
The taskforce will work in conjunction with the British Bankers' Association (BBA) and will unveil advice to increase financial solutions and awareness of financial options for SME's. BBA chief executive Angela Knight stressed the importance of small business knowledge of services, telling the Radio 4 Today programme that banks are ''providing good finance to viable business'' and that with the help of banks, ''business has overwhelmingly paid back its debts.''
According to The Telegraph, banking experts will chair a ''steering group'' which will oversee four ''work streams''. The streams will study different objectives and be formed of personnel from the Treasury, the Bank of England and the Department of Business, Innovation and skills. The broad range of stakeholders will undertake a wide-ranging review, which will look at both the demand and provision of business finance.
As well as the taskforce, Chancellor George Osborne has urged banks to make credit available to SME's, nevertheless, two of the UK's biggest banks including Lloyds have already pledged gross lending targets to increase loan uptake for business and mortgage lending, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Sarah Howard