Small firms get Credit Review Office on side

The Credit Review Office is lobbying Government to significantly extend the limits to which SMEs can appeal regarding refused funding.

Currently, the Credit Review Office — which was established in 2010 to monitor credit flow to SMEs — can only assess cases where firms feel they have been unfairly refused credit of up to €500,000.

Speaking at the Small Firms Association’s annual conference in Dublin yesterday, the Credit Review Office chief, John Trethowan, said that, with so few lending banks in the Irish market at present, upping the scope for firms to appeal to his office could be a vital additional benefit to them.