No appetite

A bit old, but things have not changed much. The British Banking Assocation's August 2011 figures found here support my claim that the problem is not that banks are unwilling to lend to businesses but that businesses have no appetite to raise new funds.

This is what BBA statistics director, David Brooks said.

"The weak economic environment continues to undermine confidence in both household and business sectors, which impacts on borrowing demand." 


"The banks' new mortgage lending has ticked up in the past couple of months with higher buy-to-let demand, and some business sectors are edging towards year-on-year borrowing growth, although the general landscape is one of households not wanting to take on more borrowing and businesses waiting for trading conditions to  improve before borrowing to expand or invest. Against this backdrop, paying down existing debt dominates the net lending figures."