Risk Management – Is it better now? I have recently taken part in a roundtable discussion on Responsible Financial Management organised and facilitated by the Open University Business School drawing together experienced people from both the world of business and academia. In particular the discussion focussed on what has changed since the onset of the […]
How is Business Finance DOWN when GDP and House prices are UP
Business Finance still falling The Bank of England’s latest Trends in Lending survey released last week shows that business funding fell by some £4.3bn in the three months to November 2013. Whilst the decline was less than in the corresponding three months in 2012 – it was still a significant drop in net lending, and […]
SME business finance – where is it?
Whilst the UK economy continues on its growth path, and is at least firing on some cylinders (if not all), business finance for the SME sector remains patchy. The Stats Bank of England figures – released on 29 November – showed that net lending to the SME sector had fallen by some £206m in October. […]
End of Funding for Lending – What effect on SME business finance?
It seems the Bank of England has spotted the issues regarding the potential bubble in the housing market as referred to in our article. Ironically, as I mentioned in this recent post, I think the froth in the market was starting to soften anyway. There is further evidence of this in the latest release from MasterCard […]
‘Banks too big to fail’ – securing availability of business finance
The truth is the last 5 years have been hell on earth for anyone trying to secure business finance on anything like sensible terms. This has been particularly the case for the small- and medium-sized businesses. After the calamitous failure of Lehman Brothers in 2008, the banks dusted themselves down, reviewed what had happened and […]
Business finance for the SME on the rise – Says Bank of England
The availability of funding to small businesses from banks and building societies is to continue to rise in the final quarter of 2013. This is according to the Bank of England’s recently published Credit Conditions Survey. Background on survey The first Credit Conditions Survey was conducted in the second quarter of 2007. The quarterly survey of […]
Forward Guidance – a chance to get our business finance in order?
Those of you with their fingers on the pulse of the UK economy, will be well aware of the recent “big introduction” from Mark Carney – new Governor of the Bank of England. I refer, of course, to his ‘Forward Guidance‘ on interest rates, which – as we mentioned in our last post – is […]
Enterprise Investment Scheme – More SME business funding solutions
Following on from our recent article on the new Business Bank, this is the latest in a series explaining the various government schemes aimed at increasing the availability of funding to businesses in the UK. Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) is aimed at assisting smaller companies raise capital by offering a range […]
SEIS – Tax relief for SME investments – Business finance solutions
The feel good factor is back – is it built on sand? What a great week for UK business. Fantastic weather, three great sporting achievements, house prices are going up (allegedly), low interest rates are going on forever (?) and we all feel pretty good about the future – me included. Even the IMF has […]
Business Finance freely available says government and banks – REALLY?
Great news from Government and the big 4 Banks – ‘We want to solve funding problems and provide more business finance solutions now’. On the surface this is fantastic news. However if we dig below the surface there is more to this than meets the eye. I would ask two questions: Do they really mean […]