SME’s continue to have well publicised frustrations in accessing finance, even for growth funding when they have confirmed contracts which you would think would justify cashflow support. On the other hand, bankers continue to present tales of a lack of demand or suitable propositions to justify the fact that their lending growth is below target.
Intermediaries who can support SME’s (by encouraging them to apply for funding and then helping them present their case – and particularly to then introduce them to the best lender) can play an important role here. One of their challenges is to keep abreast of what is going on in the market of course.
Many of the Government backed schemes have proven to be a tediously predictable disappointment. Some of the new lenders on the block have found themselves struggling to cope with the volumes of applicants and seem to have retreated to the basic, risk free models they were expected to breakout of.
It was very refreshing therefore to be introduced to some of the team responsible for rolling out Santander’s ‘Breakthrough’ and ‘Supplier Payments’ initiatives. These appear to be evidence of Santander’s commitment to the SME market and also some ‘joined up thinking’; combining different types of funding into one package and bringing to the UK some schemes that have been used to good effect in the other markets that they are familiar with.
Good luck to them with this – we just now need to ensure that the ‘discouraged demand’ that is out there can be shaken up and motivated to explore such schemes.