Well, my
wife Mary and I celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary last weekend. Although
our celebrations didn't quite match up to those of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee,
we nevertheless had a great time and it was good to have an extra couple of
days off! The royal pageantry was
amazing and impressive, and I confess to being mesmerised by the way images
were projected onto Buckingham Palace during Monday's concert. Even on television, it was simply awesome, and
it was certainly one of the weekend's highlights for me.
On a more everyday
subject, I was interested to read the report about bank loan appeals last week.
Professor Russell Griggs, who I know
well, was appointed independent arbitrator under last year’s Project
Merlin pact between Government and the banks, with a remit to adjudicate when
companies with sales of up to £25 million feel that they have been unfairly refused
credit. Most appeals were from
retailers, construction companies, restaurants and hotels complaining about
limits placed on overdrafts or credit cards. Half of the amounts in dispute
were sums of less than £5,000, although a few were higher than £1 million.
During the first year of the scheme, 114,000 applications (14 percent) were declined
by the Taskforce banks, of which 2,177 were taken to appeal. Of these, the report reveals that 39.5
percent were successful.
Professor
Griggs says he thinks the numbers are reasonable, given that no one had any
idea how many appeals there would be, but that the banks need to ensure all
customers know they can appeal, which not all do currently and that needs to
change. He adds the suggestion that, if
more knew they could appeal, there is a possibility more might apply for credit
in the first place.
That is
perhaps one of the most worrying comments in the whole report. My experience of talking to many SMEs is that
there is limited awareness of the appeals process, even from companies who
genuinely believe they, or their financial numbers, have been misinterpreted by
a banker. We can all play our part in
making small businesses aware of the process, details of which can be found at:
http://www.icaew.com/~/media/Files/Technical/Business-and-financial-management/SMEs/BBF%20Factsheet%20Appeals%20Process.ashx
No comments:
Post a Comment