On average, less than one in 10 SME loan applications to one nameless high street bank are successful.
The figures were released by SME funding platform, Code Investing, whose CEO, Ayan Mitra, said: “Due to regulation, due to banks having huge cost structures, due to SMEs not having standardised data, there’s quite a big funding gap.”
He added that he expected this low level of lending would lead to a boom in alternative finance, which currently accounts for just two per cent of SME lending in the UK. Alternative finance relates to funding channels other than the traditional banking institutions.
The success rate for SME alternative finance applicants is understood to be nearer 40 per cent.
Link: High street bank converts just 8% of SME loan applications
