An important part of the access to finance review was an examination of how other types of lending to SMEs in Wales can help close the finance gap that currently exists for some businesses. There were several recommendations from the stage 1 review on non-bank sources of finance and a number of these issues are currently being examined by the Welsh Government - most notably that of trade credit. However, as this blog posting will show, there have been some further developments in the field of alternative sources of lending which is a significant factor given that banks continue to struggle to lend to SMEs in Wales and the rest of the UK. Trends in non-bank lending The first part of the report examined, in detail, the different types of alternative finance that is available to businesses in Wales. Six months later, the evidence suggests that whilst traditional bank lending continues to decline, there has been an increase in the level of non-bank lending to businesses across ...
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