Banks’ support for SMEs - July to December 2011
Total SME borrowing by way of loans and overdrafts stood at £107.7bn at the end of last year, with overall levels little changed over the second half of 2011.
David Dooks, BBA statistics director, said of the new datasets:
“With lending of £108bn and deposit holding of £113bn at the year-end, the level of bank support for non-financial SMEs in the private sector is clear. During the second half of last year, there were more than 226,000 new credit facilities approved for nearly £17bn. These figures reflect application approval rates of around 77% for smaller businesses and around 90% for larger businesses.
“It is the case that whilst almost £13bn of new loans was drawn down in the second half of last year, SMEs made repayments of £14bn, leaving the total stock of borrowing marginally lower at the year-end.
“Lending facilities approved in the second half of last year proportionately reflect the spread of industry sectors and regions in which SMEs operate”.
Please find the full release and excel tables here and an explanatory note here.