Funding for Lending has not stimulated bank lending to SMEs so what does the Bank of England do? That’s right, they’re extending the scheme, offering the banks loans at just 0.75% with no limits on how much the banks can borrow – but only if they lend more than they are receiving in repayments from customers.
And the formula applied by the Government makes it almost impossible for the banks to be able to fulfil the lending obligations. For the full details see the BBC’s blog by Robert Peston http://tinyurl.com/c38w4rp
All this has been announced at a time when the banks are also required to focus on recapitalising to even greater levels and when despite such initiatives SMEs are not borrowing, but instead are focused on controlling cash flow and paying down debt and are generally as risk averse as the banks.
So is the BoE missing the point or is the Funding for Lending scheme nothing more than excessive spin?
Which leads one to speculate whether Spinmeister Alastair Campbell is back in action behind the scenes.
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