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Responding to the Treasury Committee's report on SME Finance, Stephen Pegge, Director of Commercial Finance, UK Finance, commented:
?Small and medium-sized businesses play a vital role in our economy which the financial services sector is committed to supporting.
?The finance sector has undertaken a number of significant initiatives in recent years to improve standards and promote access to finance for SMEs.
?Banks provided £57 billion of lending to SMEs in 2017 and continue to approve eight in ten applications for finance. Firms who are turned down for a loan can access an independently-monitored appeals process and are offered the chance to be matched up with alternative finance providers.
?However, we recognise that more clearly can and should be done to enhance confidence and ensure SMEs can access the full range of support and guidance they need.
?UK Finance and its members will review this report, alongside other relevant evidence, and continue working constructively with all key stakeholders to deliver the best possible outcome for SMEs.?
<ol><li>UK Finance is a trade association formed on 1 July 2017 to represent the banking and finance industry operating in the UK. It represents around 300 firms in the UK providing credit, banking, markets and payment-related services. The new organisation brings together most of the activities previously carried out by the Asset Based Finance Association, the British Bankers? Association, the Council of Mortgage Lenders, Financial Fraud Action UK, Payments UK and the UK Cards Association.</li> <li>UK Finance?s recent report, ?<a href="/system/files/SME-Finance-Where-are-we-nowV4.pdf" target="_blank">SME Finance ? Where Are We Now</a>,? looks in more in detail at some of the measures undertaken by the industry over the past decade to promote access to finance for SMEs.</li> <li>Since 2010, several significant initiatives have been launched through the Business Taskforce to help SMEs with access to finance: <ul><li>A lending appeals process with independent oversight to enable businesses whose lending requests are declined or who are unhappy with the conditions to have their requests reviewed</li> <li>A national mentoring network providing access to 27,000 enterprise mentors</li> <li>The <a href="https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww…; target="_blank">Business Growth Fund</a> ? funded by major banks in 2011 to provide equity for SMEs, which has so far delivered £1.6bn of investment and backed 239 companies across the country</li> <li>Regular roundtables with SMEs including those for specific sectors</li> </ul></li> <li>In July 2017, 20 banks signed up to the new <a href="https://www.lendingstandardsboard.org.uk/the-slp/" target="_blank">Standards of Lending Practice</a> that define the treatment and outcomes SME customers should expect including if in financial difficulty, as assessed by the Lending Standards Board.</li> <li>The banking sector provided £57 billion in gross lending to SMEs during 2017, with a total stock of lending to SMEs of £165 billion (Source: <u><a href="https://www.bankofengland.co.uk" target="_blank">Bank of England</a></u>)</li> <li>The latest data from UK Finance shows banks continue to approve eight in 10 applications for finance from SMEs (<a href="/sme-update-q2-2018-%E2%80%93-sme-loan-approval-rates-remain-high" target="_blank">UK Finance SME Update Q2 2018)</a>.</li> </ol>
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