Friday, Feb 19, 2010
Undermining the foundations
Guardian: Banking sector condemned over 'horrific' drop in loans to business
Lending by banks to companies fell last year for the first time since records began in the latest illustration of the banking industry's reluctance to provide finance to businesses and another sign of the fragile state of the economy.
"......"Stripping out the property sector, bank lending to the productive economy was 16.2% down on the previous year. No wonder our economy is stuck in the mire," said Lord Oakeshott, Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman."
Posted by dill @ 05:48 AM (512 views) Add Comment
4 Comments
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1. devo said...
from the comments....
I work at Barclays and we have been told to ratchet up lending to our richest customers whilst cutting off lending to low and middle income people or anyone who is at any risk of default - ie the people the Gov want to help.
What is obscene is that we are phoning mulitmillionaire customers begging them to take loans at 1% - 2% for £1m+ and suggesting they buy prime property or stocks with it. And the irony is that they say "not you too, I've already had RBS and Lloyds on saying the same".
2. p. doff said...
Funny really. Banks trying to lend at a high interest rate to people that probably already have a pile deposited at the bank getting a low interest rate.
Now that really does sound like a good deal - where do I sign up? ....duh
3. paul said...
I've got a really wacky idea to solve this problem - why don't banks start offering attractive savings rates in order to increase their capital ratios so that they can lend more?
Nahhh. Stupid idea, eh?
4. sneaker said...
Of course they couldn't lend money. They were too busy using it for trading and paying themselves bonuses.