Credit, collections & insolvency news
A survey by invoice finance company Novuna Business Cash Flow has found that 34% of SMEs could cease trading if unable to secure funding. The figure contrasts sharply with the surprising revelation that 50% of SMEs have not sought any form of financial assistance since November 2023, despite the precarious position many find themselves in…
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Analysis of the Bank of England’s data by Ebury’s SME Borrowing Tracker shows that SMEs repaid almost £10 billion across 2023, with the final three months of 2023 marking the largest quarterly change in SME loans outstanding for 2023 as repayments accelerated towards the end of the year. In 2023, SMEs repaid a net sum of…
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New figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that total asset finance new business (primarily leasing and hire purchase) grew in February 2024 by 10% compared with the same month in 2023. In the first two months of 2024, new business was 9% higher than in the same period in 2023. The…
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Latest UK Finance data has highlighted that £3.5 billion was lent to SMEs in the fourth quarter of 2023 – the first quarter not to see a fall since Q2 2022. Figures from banking trade body UK Finance show that lending to SMEs fell for a third consecutive year in 2023. Gross lending to SMEs…
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New figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that total asset finance new business (primarily leasing and hire purchase) grew in January 2024 by 8% compared with the same month in 2023. In the twelve months to January 2024, new business was 12% higher than in the same period in 2023. The…
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13% of small business owners have backed out of a loan due to the demand for a personal guarantee according to new research by Purbeck Personal Guarantee Insurance. Purbeck says there is a concerning lack of understanding of personal guarantees in the context of business loans amongst small businesses. The survey found that although 30%…
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EY Item Club is predicting that bank lending is expected to remain subdued this year, with elevated interest rates tamping appetite for borrowing. The report says that bank lending to businesses will rise by only 0.8% amid weak demand for credit and restrictive borrowing costs. EY says that although the Bank of England is expected…
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A survey on the state of small business finances by Purbeck Personal Guarantee Insurance has uncovered that despite a turbulent year in 2023 with high inflation and geopolitical unrest knocking consumer confidence, almost a third of small businesses (31%) are making a good profit and 45% are in profit by a small margin. 18% say they are…
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Small businesses are increasingly confident over an economic recovery and the positive impact this will have on their finances. A poll by small business lender Iwoca shows that almost half (47%) of small businesses expect their revenues to expand this year, marking a steep increase on the 26% who said the same at the start…
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The latest Business Finance Review by UK Finance has revealed a 20% year-on-year drop in lending to SMEs. UK Finance’s latest data shows £3.5 billion was lent to SMEs in the Quarter 3 (Q3) of 2023 compared to £4.4 billion in the same period last year. This represents the fifth consecutive quarterly fall, while gross…
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The difficulty small business owners are experiencing accessing funding without having to sign a personal guarantee has become clear according new analysis by Purbeck Insurance. The company say that October 2023 saw the largest number of small business owners ever recorded, taking insurance to mitigate the risk of signing a personal guarantee as a condition…
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High street banks are pulling back from lending to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). At the same time, demand for capital is set to rise with over eight in ten SME finance experts (83%) believing that high street banks are reducing their appetite to fund the UK’s 5.5m SMEs, according to iwoca’s latest SME Expert…
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Bank-to-business lending is forecast to contract 0.5% this year according to EY ITEM Club, as economic challenges and high borrowing costs dampen businesses’ appetites to borrow. The forecast says net lending to SMEs has been much weaker than to larger businesses this year, with the latest Bank of England data showing loans to SMEs were…
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