(4 December 2015 – United Kingdom) British banks increased their lending to small businesses by 75 percent in the last quarter. Banks lent £700 million (A$1.44 billion) to small businesses under the government's Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) in Q3 2015, with the activity seeking to promote economic growth.
The Bank of England (BoE) launched the Scheme in 2012 to provide cheap money to banks, then amended in 2014 to focus on small business lending. The FLS was recently extended by an additional two years as credit conditions for small businesses had not improved enough.
State backed Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland led the lending spree, which increased from £400 million in the second quarter.
The central bank's data showed that net lending by Lloyds was £313 million in the Q3 and by RBS was £276 million, the Bank data showed on Thursday. New bank Aldermore was next highest, increasing net lending by £85 million.