ISME wants credit vacuum tackled

Stronger government intervention and a change of management at the main banks is needed, according to small firms lobby group ISME, in order to tackle a seemingly worsening credit vacuum for SMEs.

ISME’s latest quarterly bank watch survey, published this morning, shows that bank refusal rates to small- and medium-sized firms looking for credit jumped by 4% to 54% during the three months to the end of February.

The survey also shows that demand for SME-related lending has gone up from 37% to 39% and that nearly 70% of small firms believe that the current Government has either a neutral or negative impact on lending to their sector.