Liberal Democrats Would Force Banks To Offer Loans
The Liberal Democrats are unlikely to have won much support from the banking community with their latest piece of election campaigning, as they have called on the major high street banks to start offering business loans to small and medium sized businesses once again.
The Lib Dems have claimed that many of the partly nationalised banks are not meeting their obligations with regard to offering loans to successful businesses at competitive rates, despite receiving huge bail outs through loans from the Government for just that purpose.
Whilst on the election campaign trail in Scotland, the Lib Dems accused banks of failing to support small businesses with the loans they need and also the current Labour Government for not forcing the banks to support recovery in the UK economy by offering business loans where these are appropriate.
Nicol Stephen of the Liberal Democrats said that the Government was turning a blind eye to the lack of support from banks for small businesses, despite giving them massive loans to bail them out when they needed it.
She also said that if the Lib Dems were to get into power at the next election, they would take action to force the partly nationalised banks to fulfil their obligations when it comes to offering business loans and restoring the economy of the country.
Nicol Stephen said “Liberal Democrats would force state backed banks like RBS and HBoS to start lending, if they didn’t meet our binding new targets, the board of directors would be held responsible and fired. Tax payers already own massive stakes in many high street banks but those banks still won’t meet their own legally binding targets for lending. Many successful businesses need money up front and it’s in all our interests that they get it. Labour has turned a blind eye to bad banking practice.”
