Tag: business lending

Inquiry finds business funding gap needs local finance to make levelling-up reality

Close £22bn business funding gap to make levelling-up reality, say MPs A multi-billion pound funding gap for small businesses is preventing the UK from “levelling-up,” according to an in-depth, cross-party Parliamentary inquiry. The “Scale Up to… Continue reading

£50 million milestone for BCRS

Responsible Finance member BCRS Business Loans has surpassed a landmark £50 million of lending since 2002, and supported 1,450 small and medium sized businesses across the West Midlands. Continue reading

BEF’s £31m boost to regional economy

BEF’s new 2018-19 Social Impact report demonstrates its lending has had an enormous, positive effect for businesses, individuals and communities. Continue reading

CIC Blog: Ethnicity and Financial Exclusion

The UK is one of the most powerful financial centres in the world, yet financial exclusion remains a significant issue. At the same time, a recent report into racial prejudice in Britain today shows that despite… Continue reading

CIC blog: ‘Our partner bank cashed in its chips’

How data analysis can help to improve access to finance for small businesses… but only with support of banks. Kent Hudson from LABO ESS writes about a pilot scheme in France to use effective data management… Continue reading

Lending, lending, lending…

It’s been a busy time for our business-focused CDFIs. They’ve been posting record lending figures, helping more small firms than ever.

Demand for non-bank business loans increases

Non-bank community lenders saw an increase in demand from businesses of 36% in the first quarter of 2013, according to the Community Finance Monitor survey. This bucks the trend reported in today’s Bank of England Trends in Lending report, which says demand for bank credit remained weak in quarter one, and that demand from small businesses fell. Continue reading