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BKL in the press
Banks no longer have managers who look after small businesses
This reply was first published by freshbusinessthinking.com on 17/07/2010
Members of the UK200Group of independent accountancy and lawyer firms have commented on reports that the UK's banks have promised to look again at why lending to small businesses has fallen, following pressure from the government.
Daniel Shear, corporate finance partner, BKL
"There have been some decidedly mixed messages coming out of our banks lately as, on the one hand, they are trumpeting their efforts in lending more to small and medium-sized enterprises, while on the other, many SMEs are telling us that their requests are being turned down.
"We know of certain bank managers who have many years of experience in their banks, and therefore tend to be able to predict which deals will make it past their credit teams, who are now telling us that their credit teams are refusing some lines of credit for apparently unknown reasons.
"We think it likely that, despite the positive messages put out by the banks, the directors are telling their credit teams they will not tolerate the levels of write-offs experienced in the past couple of years and there is pressure on the credit teams to only accept the securest funding lines."
