Emergency lending to small firms doubles
Figures from UK Finance show lending to small businesses has almost doubled on a week ago with banks now committing £2.8bn in emergency government-backed loans to British firms. Royal Bank of Scotland has approved £1.2bn, Lloyds has lent £335m, Barclays £586m and HSBC £480.5m. UK Finance said banks had so far approved 46% of 36,000 applications. However, businesses are still reporting difficulties in accessing loans with the British Chambers of Commerce calling for the process to be simplified ahead of a “crunch week”. Mike Cherry, of the Federation of Small Businesses, welcomed the improvement but said more disclosure was needed on why businesses were being turned down by banks.