Banks slammed for strict pub loans criteria

31-May-2011 - Last updated on 27-Aug-2011 at 09:31 GMT

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Banks are being increasingly "pernickety" about lending to pubs, experts claim as figures released by the Bank of England show that Britain's top five banks fell short of their target to lend £19bn for the first three months of the year.

Banks are being increasingly "pernickety" about lending to pubs, according to specialist financial broker David Grant, head of mortgages at Christie Finance.

He makes his claim as figures released by the Bank of England show that Britain's top five banks fell short of their target to lend £19bn for the first three months of the year.

According to the data, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC, Santander and Barclays lent £16.8bn to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) during the first quarter.

These banks had pledged to lend £76bn to small businesses this year, around £19bn a quarter, as part of Project Merlin.

Grant explained that pubs continue to face stricter loan applications. "I'm not surprised that the banks missed the target because they're continuing to apply a stringent criteria to the pub sector," he said. "I thought they would have lent a lot less.

"I've noticed the banks being very pernickety in their terms too.

"They say they only want to lend to pubs that do food, but then when you give

them a pub that does provide food, they say it doesn't do enough food, although it is a shifting picture because this has been our second busiest sector after retail."

Same old excuses

Acorn Finance director Paul Thompson said: "We have helped licensees who have experienced growth or tenants who are buying the freehold of their pubs to secure finance."

He said that the firm is also looking at alternative ways of gaining funding, away from the traditional bank loan.

The Forum of Private Business's chief executive Phil Orford added: "We are prepared to wait until the end of the year before making a final judgement, but it is clear that the banks are trotting out the same old excuses when they are simply not delivering on the ground.

"We want to see banks invest in regional services and hand decision-making powers back to local branch managers who are best placed to make key lending decisions based on realistic assessments of individual businesses."

Business secretary Vince Cable admitted that there is a serious problem with

lending to good, small-sized companies.

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