CENTRAL BANK FIGURES CONFIRM LACK OF BANK LENDING TO SMES

SMEs suffer as bailed out banks withhold credit. 

Banks’ untruths distorting the reality on SME credit issues.

ISME calls on Government to pressure bailed out banks to lend. 

ISME, Wednesday 22nd August 2012. 

ISME, the Irish Small & Medium Enterprises Association, has called on the government to immediately demand full and complete disclosure from the bailed out banks on lending to SMEs. Today’s research from the central bank, once more confirms what the Association has been stating for years, that access to bank finance is being denied to viable but vulnerable businesses.

According to ISME Chief Executive, Mark Fielding, “While Irish banks have been recapitalised with enormous fiscal injections, the truth of the matter is the bailed-out banks are not fixed, rescued bankers continue to utter untruths, banking reform is delayed and banking policy is turning good business bad. These same Irish banks refuse to lend to viable small and medium enterprises”.

“This present administration must stop their current love affair with the banks, demand changes in bank operations and insist that they partake in a positive way in the recovery. It may suit the administration to believe the fiction created by bankers’ spin that the system is functioning; otherwise why sink billions of taxpayers’ money into keeping them afloat. The reality is that banks are performing at a very limited capacity in ensuring the payments system and ATMs are functioning, however when it comes to assisting the SME sector to grow, the bailed-out banks are continuing to refuse SMEs access to finance, thereby hindering the economy.”

“The Government, the owners, must take a more hands on approach while the system is broken, insist on opening credit lines, servicing SME customers and play their part in economic recovery. Otherwise business will stagnate, employment will reduce and the economy will suffer for a generation,” Fielding stated.

The Association demands that this Government insist on the two bailed out banks hitting their target of €7 billion in ‘new and increased facilities to SMEs’ and not accept distorted figures from the banks. The Central Bank is the arbiter and ‘honest broker’, with accurate figures to distinguish SME fact from bankers’ fiction.

For further information contact: 

Mark Fielding 

Chief Executive 

Tel: 01 6622755 

Mobile: 087 2519675 

Note to Editors: 

ISME is the only independent voice of Small & Medium business in Ireland, representing in excess of 8,750 members across all sectors. The Association is owned and run by owner managers and is independent of big business, government and unions; the TRUE voice of the Irish SME. www.isme.ie