New Bank Lending Initiative Targets Smaller Businesses
A new bank lending initiative was announced by the Government recently. The Chamber of Commerce welcomes this announcement by the Government of this new initiative to make £20bn indirectly available to small and medium enterprises (SME’s) in funding. The scheme will be operated by the National Loan Guarantee Scheme (NLGS) and will work through the government providing guarantees to the banks for their own borrowing. This will enable lenders to borrow funds more cheaply than they normally could. The banks will then in turn pass on the cheaper funding in the form of lower interest rates. Sadly, not all banks have agreed to participate, so far only Barclays, Santander and Royal Bank of Scotland(RBS) have signed up to the scheme.

In view of many banks’ reluctance to lend in the recent past, unless this new willingness to lend is effectively communicated to all local branch staff the scheme will be not be as successful as it could be. If your business is in need to borrowing for refinancing, expansion or development why not go into your local branch today and ask them about their favourable new rates under this scheme and see what they can do for you? Do not forget to tell us about your experiences in particular how those with new businesses and those wishing to expand are treated.

As soon as we have more information the Chamber will pass on further details to our members.