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Banks deemed open to lending
BANKS are “open for business”, an official government taskforce headed by Professor Russel Griggs has concluded, with just two per cent of small firms whose lending application was rejected having appealed the decision.
Of those that did appeal, 40 per cent ended up being able get some form of credit. With only 14 per cent of total SME applications having been rejected in the first place, the figures mean that just 0.2 per cent of credit-hungry firms were rejected both by banks’ initial lending decision and the subsequent appeals process.