Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the British economy and we are determined to rebuild business trust in the financial services sector, support the economy and serve customers better.

Since 2010, the banking and wider financial services industry has taken significant steps to better support SMEs with access to finance. These steps have included:

• A Lending Appeals Process with independent oversight to enable businesses whose lending requests are declined or who are unhappy with the conditions offered to have their requests reviewed;
• A national mentoring network providing access to 27,000 enterprise mentors; and
• A Business Growth Fund, bank-funded with £2.5bn