Small business owners demand loan approval

GIVE us a loan – that was one of the shouts from the floor to a bank chief at this year’s annual ISME conference.

In response, Bank of Ireland director of business banking Mark Cunningham said: “Come and talk to us”.

The annual ISME conference was packed with hundreds of small business owners, all looking for tips on how to survive. They listened to bank and Revenue speakers. Economist Alan McQuaid was there, as was Glen Dimplex chief Sean O’Driscoll.

Very vocal in his criticism of the Government was former Labour Party general secretary Brendan Halligan, now Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland chairman.

Mr Cunningham told 300 small business owners that the bank is approving 81% of loan applications and has approved €2.7 billion worth of new loans in the year to the end of September.

He said about half of this is new lending and the rest is refinancing or restructuring loans. He also said Bank of Ireland will probably lend €3.5 to 3.6bn to the SME sector in 2010, exceeding the bank’s €3bn commitment.

But he was told by ISME chairperson Eilis Quinlan that he was speaking “utter c***”.

She said the bank may have approved that amount of money but it wasn’t going to SMEs.

One business owner from Clare said he was outraged at being refused a loan recently, despite having a 40% deposit.

Mr Cunningham said any businesses that have an issue with not being approved for a loan should contact the Credit Review Office.