08 September 2021: City A.M., London’s most-read financial and business newspaper, quotes Theodora Hadjimichael, chief executive of Responsible Finance:
“Access to finance remains the major block to SME growth in the regions, deprived areas and among demographics under-served by mainstream and so-called challenger banks. And levelling-up will not be delivered solely by building projects in red-wall constituencies.”
The City A.M. story covers the new “Scale Up to Level Up” report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Fair Business Banking, which describes a critical shortage of finance to many SMEs and a lack of trust between banks and businesses.
It also quotes Danny Kruger MP: “We need lenders whose interests align with those of the community as a whole…CDFIs are more flexible, don’t have blanket lending policies and can apply real human judgement to the decisions they make about lending.”
The APPG’s report calls on Government to:
“Deliver a strong local finance option for every business in the UK – by providing capital to regionally based CDFIs and mutual banks which they will then multiply by lending to thousands of local businesses.” It adds that “in the longer term, a mandated portion of bank lending should come through CDFIs in order to allow them scale their offerings further.”
Read our summary and commentary about the report here.
Read the City A.M. article here.
The report, and its calls for Government to back CDFIs, were also covered by The Entrepreneurs Network and Amicus Asset Finance.
What next?
- Media / journalists: Responsible Finance, our members and clients have featured in TV, radio, national and regional newspapers, magazines, online and in podcasts.
- We can offer interviews, comment and case studies about access to finance / affordable credit / financial inclusion / debt, relating to businesses, social enterprises and people. Please contact [email protected] // 07904 272 200 to request interviews and case studies.