Challenger Banks starting to fill the gap left by reluctant high street small business lenders.
The Bank of England's Quarterly Credit Conditions Report, released today, indicates that demand for borrowing from small businesses has fallen slightly over the last quarter, and credit being made available to small businesses has stayed flat. Conversely the credit provided to the sector by Challenger lender Boost Capital over the same period has risen rose by 65%, with full year on year growth running at around 70%.
Commenting on the way small businesses are now starting to fund their growth and cashflow needs, Chief Executive of Boost Capital, Alex Littner said, 'Conditions for small businesses remain tough, and they need the broad scale support from lenders to help with their cashflow and to provide the loans for them to make investments and drive growth. Whilst today's report is showing that the mainstream banks have money to lend, there is a clear trend of businesses now looking towards the new challengers for the support they need. At Boost Capital we are seeing lending to small businesses growing by 70% year on year compared with the flat performance from the high street banks. The convenience of a fast decision and access to loans is clearly showing that challenger lenders, like Boost Capital, are starting to be a more attractive place to go to than the banks when small businesses are looking for financial support.'