Cable attacks banks over lending

The Business Secretary Vince Cable has once again attacked banks over a lack of lending to SMEs.

Mr Cable made the attack during a speech on the economy at the Liberal Democrat’s annual conference in Birmingham.

He said: “Productive British business and banking are currently at odds.

“Banks operate like a man who either wears his trousers round his chest, stifling breathing, as now, or round his ankles, exposing his assets. That’s if they have any.”

Cable added that “we want their trousers tied round their middle: steady lending growth; particularly to productive British business, especially small-scale enterprise.”

In July Mr Cable suggested dividends and bonuses paid out by banks could be targeted by the Government as part of a “carrot and stick” approach to boost lending.

He added that if the banks were left unchallenged, a lack of available finance for SMEs could halt any economic recovery.

LINK: Cable sees truce ahead with UK banks, halting year of conflict