ISME calls for accurate figures on bank lending

ISME, the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association, wants the Government to force banks to publish full and accurate figures on new and additional bank lending.

The recent report on the €6bn lending target, set by the late Minister Brian Lenihan, was incomplete and did not give a clear and accurate figure of “new and additional lending” as required by Government.

Mark Fielding, chief executive of ISME, who has been a strong critic of bank lending policy since the bank meltdown, said the government risked being tainted by the deception the bank’s have engaged in since the credit crisis began. The credit reviewer admitted he did not get the specific data from the two rescued banks to report accurately, he said.

His office does not know how much was new and how much was restructured finance, “making a mockery of the claims the banks are freely lending to SMEs”.

Unless the Government acts now, it “is in danger of being implicated in this latest deceit” if they fail to demand full disclosure from the two main banks.

“It is utterly reprehensible, but believable, that the two bailed-out banks have once again given two fingers to the Government and the taxpayer by not coming clean on their real lending to SMEs,” he said.

In an attempt to put further pressure on the banks, Mr Fielding said: “The lies being spun by the powerful banking lobby, their representative group the IBF and their supporters cannot be allowed to deflect the Government from its stated aim of accessing credit for small businesses.”

The new administration has to establish “beyond doubt” the level of new and additional finance being provided by the banks and dispel the fiction that the banks are functioning in the SME market. Only when the true situation becomes apparent can the solutions be put in place to address this ongoing issue, he said.

His latest call looks to put Mr Fielding in the same camp as the Irish |Banking Federation which recently backed the call by the Credit Review Office for new research on business lending to be jointly commissioned by Government, business and banking representatives.

Such a broad based review should be done to ensure “the results would command universal acceptance”.

But in reality both sides are not exactly singing from the same hymn sheet.

IBF chief executive Pat Farrell said in his statement “the IBF remains firmly of the view that the results produced by ISME’s Quarterly Bank Watch Survey . . . are misleading in that they do not provide a complete or accurate account of the demand for credit.”