At last – a funding lifeline for the SME market place

A new UK bank has launched with a pledge to loan £250m in 2012 to cash-strapped SMEs that have been denied credit by the big four high street lenders.

A survey of more than 800 SMEs by Shawbrook revealed that 89% believe banks do not use common sense when making decisions about business loan applications, while 45% feel banks are too bureaucratic when dealing with SMEs.

Shawbrook chief executive Owen Woodley, a 20-year veteran of Barclays, said the bank would aim to change that by making it easier and more straightforward for credit-worthy SMEs to borrow.

Read full article.

Free Resources

Related posts:

Barclays ‘scrapping asset finance for SMEs’ Despite Barclays signing up to the Project Merlin agreement, pledging to increase its lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) this year, it is scrapping...

Nearly half of SMEs have been turned down for a loan, survey reveals The UK’s SMEs feel that still not enough is being done by the banks to provide finance and that the Government should force banks to...

Cable increases pressure on banks to lend to SMEs UK business secretary Vince Cable has announced that he wants all banks to publish lending figures to SMEs and to give full details of why...

Barclays to lend £150m of ‘cheap’ money to small firms The cash, which comes from the European Investment Bank, will cost 2.5 percentage points less than Barclays’ normal interest rate and is available to companies...

Barclays launches Lending Clinics to bolster small business confidence Barclays is launching a new national series of business lending clinics designed to bolster business lending by getting small businesses to think about borrowing and...