New evidence contradicts UK banks' lending claims

Nearly 60 per cent of loan applications by UK businesses seeking bank finance in 2009-10 were rejected, reveals a new research report, adding that 20 per cent of loan seekers were forced to finance their businesses to some extent with their credit cards.

This indictment of  the UK's banks was released today by the Institute of Directors (IoD).

The report refutes the exaggerated claims made to the government that a major portion of  lending demand had been met by them.

In the survey of 1,045 directors, a quarter said that they had tried to access finance from the institutions that they banked with in 2009-10. Of this quarter, 57 per cent of directors said that their application for finance had been rejected by their bank.

This evidence also dams the government's claims last year that banks have resumed lending operations.

The UK government had bank-rolled several collapsing banks with billions pounds of tax-payers' money to prop them up in the wake of the crash of the US sub prime market which had dragged banks from across Europe.