Following recent figures from the Bank of England showing a sharp drop in lending of £5.5 billion to non-financial businesses, John Mitchell, Director at Christie Finance comments:
“Whilst the BoE figures clearly show a dramatic fall in lending, the biggest decline since records began in May 2011, lending to SME business was flat with the contraction taking place amongst bigger companies. Some commentators would use this fall as a reminder that economic recovery is still fragile however it may reflect a change in funding source particularly as larger business turn to capital markets.”
“At Christie Finance we maintain strong relationships with banks, as the predominant source of lending, as well as niche funders such as peer-to-peer lenders and small finances houses. In the past 8 to 12 months we have seen increased levels of competition amongst banks to lend to good quality borrowers across all of our specialist sectors and the sector certainly is looking positive.”