UK banks to examine lack of lending to small businesses
Stephen Green, the chairman of the British Bankers Association and HSBC, has this week written to George Osborne outlining the creation of a new task force to examine the lack of lending to UK small businesses. The chief executives of Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds bank, Santander, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered will play a major role in the steering group as complaints about a lack of funding for small businesses in the UK increased by 120% over the last year.
It seems that UK banks are well aware that the current level of lending to the small business arena is less than expected and required but why does it take the creation of a new steering group to address this problem?
George Osborne will be happy to see the banks being proactive in their approach rather than waiting for the UK government to step in and tackle the issue. Whether it will make a difference in the short to medium term remains to be seen but unless lending to the UK small business arena increases drastically in the short term there could be problems for the UK economy. At this stage of the economic cycle small businesses need all the help they can get!
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