The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, has recently expressed concern over the amount of interest that is being charged on loans that are taken out by small firms.
Darling said that he was very concerned that the rates being charged on loans to small firms were far too high, and in order to discuss this he called a meeting with banking industry executives last week at Downing Street. Darling said that whilst the base interest rate had dropped to its lowest level in history, at just 0.5 percent, loan rates appeared to be continually rising.
Darling went on to state that the government did not bail out the banking sector ‘out of some charitable act’ and he added that banks now had a responsibility to ensure that lending levels were restored. A number of major banks had to be bailed out by the government, with the use of taxpayer’s money, following the onset of the credit crunch, and the chancellor said that it was now time for banks to take responsibility and ensure measures were put into place to get lending back to reasonable levels.
Darling said: “The public will not understand it if they [the banks] don’t seem to be doing their part. I want them to rebuild their balance sheets… but at the same time, because of the particular circumstances we’re in now, because of the fact we’ve got this recession, we also need them to lend money. And that’s why we re-capitalised them to do that, and that means they’ve got to live up to the promises that they made.”
An official from the Federation of Small Businesses said that the chancellor had been “quite right to haul in the banks”. He added: “It is hugely important that Mr Darling keeps tabs on the banks to ensure they are lending money to firms, and at fair rates. Firms need to be able to reap the benefits of the historically low base rate.”
0 komentar:
Post a Comment