Banks commission small business credit research

The biggest British banks have commissioned a report that will profile the creditworthiness of their small business customers. The banks hope the report will head off criticism of their lack of lending. The banks argue that they are only turning away the risky proposals but small business organisations accuse the banks of not helping out their members as much as they could. The government has also criticised the banks. The British Bankers Association (BBA) will coordinate the research by a subsidiary of Experian. BBA and HSBC chairman Stephen Green is heading up a task force and he wrote a letter to Chancellor George Osborne last month setting out four work streams. They are market analysis and understanding, securitisation and funding, business finance and business aid and small and medium sized company issues, and trade finance. The overall steering group of the task force is made up of the chief executives of the six largest UK banks plus Green in his position as BBA chairman. The research will assess the credit profiles of companies that have been refused loans. The banks hope that the fact that the research is independent will give it greater credibility. The results of the research will be part of the report promised to George Osborne in early October.