BCC: Government Action Must Improve Relationship Banking With Business
29th July 2010
The Business Secretary has released a joint consultation paper with the Treasury which sets out options to help boost lending to businesses. Commenting, David Frost, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) , said:
"Access to finance is a crucial issue for British business and the government is absolutely right to focus on the problems they are currently experiencing. Getting the existing concerns resolved as quickly as possible is essential if we are going to see a lasting private sector recovery.
"It is vital that the right approach is taken when dealing with the access to finance question. The situation is much more complex than simply forcing banks to lend when demand among businesses is anaemic. As the recovery gathers pace, we expect demand to rise along with some of the concerns businesses have articulated about bank lending.
"The banks must be as transparent as possible when decisions are made, and ensure that decision-making processes are not over centralised, tick box or removed from the front line."
