UK banks form business lending taskforce
by Gill Montia
Story link: UK banks form business lending taskforce
The UK’s leading High Street banks have formed a taskforce that will “identify barriers to businesses securing finance and make constructive suggestions about how the issues may be addressed”, the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) has reported.
The move follows heavy criticism of the banks by politicians and trade organisations who claim the economic recovery is as risk because firms are being starved of finance.
The debate has become even more heated since the UK’s biggest banks posted combined profit of £15 billion for the first six months of the year.
In a letter to Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, BBA and HSBC chairman, Stephen Green, has identified the following four taskforce work streams:
Market analysis and understanding; securitisation and funding; business finance and business aid and SME issues; trade finance.
Groups will be made up of representatives of the banks plus members from the Treasury, BIS and the Bank of England.
Initial findings will be reported to the Chancellor in early October.
