Banks miss SME lending targets
Britain’s top banks fell short of their government targets to lend to small businesses last year, Bank of England data showed on Monday, dealing a blow to the Conservative-led coalition’s hopes to get credit flowing through the economy to boost growth.
However, banks exceeded their target for lending to all businesses, making a total of £214.9bn in credit available in 2011, above their £190bn target.
The figures confirm data published by the British Bankers’ Association on Friday.
The Conservative-led coalition government struck a deal with Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds, HSBC, Barclays and Santander UK last year to boost lending to businesses, but the scheme has been criticised for doing little to alleviate tight lending conditions for firms.
The BoE’s own data showed net lending fell by £9.6bn last year.