Small businesses finding it difficult to attain finance can expect assistance from the Federal Government, says Minister for Small Business Craig Emerson following a roundtable discussion between banks and business groups late last week.
If an SME has had an application for credit refused by a financial institution, they will have a second chance to access credit by appealing to the government.
“If they have been knocked back by their local branch manager then at least they can come to us, set out their case,” said Emerson. “We’ll pass that on to the Australian Bankers’ Association, they will then farm it out to the individual banks and also perform the role of following up. So it won’t be a dead letter.”
The roundtable was arranged due to the increasing number of small businesses being refused finance due to the credit crunch. Emerson says it was important to address this issue to ensure credit flowed to small business, “because small business are big employers”.
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