Reaction to Bank's corporate lending figures

News Article - 07 April 2009
Category: Business

The Institute of Directors (IoD) has said that recent lending figures from the Bank of England should give firms confidence and promote business growth.

However, it notes that questions remain over the level of flexibility companies will now have with their finances.

Its comments follow the Bank of England's Credit Conditions Survey, published on April 2nd, which showed that the UK's banks and building societies are set to make credit more readily available to homeowners and businesses over the next few months.

Alexander Ehmann, head of parliamentary and regulatory affairs at the IoD, said that businesses should "take heart" from the news that the worst of the lending conditions were now hopefully over.

However, he added: "There is perhaps a more worrying issue not touched on in this data of the banks offering finance which isn't quite as flexible as it was in the past."

According to the Bank's survey, corporate credit availability had increased slightly over the past three months, contrary to the small fall expected in the 2008 fourth-quarter survey.

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