The Bank of England today released second quarter results for the initiative that found a total of £53 billion has been lent to UK businesses in the period, up from £47.3 billion in the first three months of the year.

The amount lent to SMEs in the second quarter was £20.5 billion, up from £16.8 billion in the first quarter, the central bank reports. So far for the year £37.3 billion has been lent to SMEs, £700 million less than the £38 billion half-year target.

The five banks, HSBC, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, and Santander UK, promised the government to lend at least £190 billion in 2011 to boost the economic recovery.

The banks define SMEs as businesses that have turnover of up to £25 million, with the exception of one bank for which data cover businesses with up to £15 million turnover.

In February, Chancellor George Osborne announced Project Merlin – an agreement between the government and the UK’s four biggest banks and Santander UK.

The deal, which covers lending, bonuses and transparency, commits the banks to lending more money in 2011, especially to small businesses, to pay less in bonuses than they did last year and to be more transparent about their pay packages.

A total of £190 billion of credit should be made available to businesses in 2011, up from the £179 billion they lent last year. Of this lending commitment, £76 billion should be made available to SMEs, representing an increase of £10 billion, or 15 per cent, in credit that was available to SMEs last year.

Andrew Cave of the Federation of Small Businesses comments that the lending statistics that show the banks have increased their lending in the quarter are ‘encouraging’

Cave says,‘We are still strangling and starving businesses in the UK of the funding they need to grow the economy.