Despite the well-documented attempts by the government to inject more impetus into the bank lending scenario, it’s just been announced that lending to UK businesses between December and February has dramatically fallen by nearly £5bn. This is an indication that the Funding for Lending scheme (FLS) is still not working as hoped for, and it’s prompted Chancellor George Osborne to extend the scheme for another year.
Some organisations however are defying the trend and making record amounts of credit available to small and medium sized businesses to help their growth plans. One of Johnson Reed’s own lenders, Funding Circle, is particularly benefiting from help by the government. They commented on their recent figures:
“As the Bank of England released statistics yesterday showing net business lending fell by £4.8bn over the last three months, Funding Circle has been well and truly bucking the trend, and facilitated £10m of business loans over the last month alone.”
They confidently expect an even more positive performance over the coming months.
Because the government is providing 20% of every Funding Circle loan, we are expecting even more funds to be available to Johnson Reed clients throughout 2013. There’s never been a better time to look for sources, other than high street banks, for loans – with terms now increased to cover six-month, two-year and four-year repayment periods.
