A £40 billion National Loan Guarantee Scheme will be launched within months to provide cheaper government-backed loans to cash-strapped SMEs, the Chancellor George Osborne has announced.
Major bank lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has fallen short of targets in the first nine months of the year agreed under Project Merlin.
Fixed income and alternative investment manager BlueBay Asset Management is launching a new private lending business aimed at funding growing European small and medium-sized enterprises.
The five major UK banks have lent £37.3 billion to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the first half of this year, less than half of the agreed £76 billion target under Project Merlin.
The first small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are starting to reap the benefits of the government' £20 billion loan guarantee scheme, announced last month by Peter Mandelson.
