10/08/2010
The Liverpool Daily Postreports that small and medium sized businesses are finding themselves once more able to access financial services such as factoring or invoice discounting, as banks are said to be looking to create lasting relationships with businesses in an effort to reverse the effects of the global economic downturn.
Many high street and commercial banks are now broadening their factoring and invoice finance services to smaller businesses after recent uncertainty for SME's, who are the groups most dependent on cash flow solutions.
According to financial commentators, this is due to growing customer demand for flexible support as business confidence returns. Across the financial services sector there has reportedly been strong growth and demand for products such as asset based lending or invoice discounting.
This recovery in the financial services/business relationship has been supported by the Government's Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme. Earlier this month, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills released figures that showed more than 800m have been drawn since the scheme was introduced just over 12 months ago, with nearly 1bn approved over all.
The Confederation of British Industry has lent its support to the scheme. "We welcome the proposal to extend the National Loan Guarantee Scheme to more medium-sized businesses," said John Cridland, the deputy director general of the CBI. "This would help improve access to finance as demand recovers."
William Hobson