Lending ease for SMEs expected in Budget
Friday June 24 2011 | 06:14 AM

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) should soon have an easier time accessing loans from commercial banks, says Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Chris Sinckler.

The Finance Minister has hinted that small business financing would be one the areas addressed in the 2011/2012 Budget expected next month.

“With the bankers, we were putting our heads together to see how we can come up with a special programme for small businesses to allow them to access capital.

“But you will hear more about that in the Budget,” Sinckler said, noting that the incoming chairman of the bankers’ association, Horace Cobham, was “taking a very special interest” in putting together a proposal.

Cobham, also president and country head of RBTT and RBC, toldBARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY that there were a few issues relating to banks that he was willing and ready to address.

 “So one of the things we are kicking around now is how we can, as banks, help support the development of a small business fund to cater to start-ups and seed-capital firms where that fund would be independently managed by an agency, and hopefully we can package the funding with technical support so that small businesses can deal with adequate financial record-keeping,” said Cobham, noting that commercial banks were not initially established to offer seed or start-up capital.

 “The next thing that we put on the table is something that has plagued commercial banks for the longest while: the fact that commercial banks aren’t as helpful to small businesses as obviously people feel commercial banks should be,” he said, acknowledging that “there was still a lot of work to be done” to get those things in place.