Will Glenn Stevens Follow Ben’s Lead & Stand Up For SMEs?

 In Daily Column

Put your hands up for Detroit...
Put your hands up for Detroit…

Last Thursday in Detroit, Ben Bernanke spoke frankly about the plight of small business in the US. “Encouraging lending to small businesses that are well positioned to pay is a positive, not a negative, for the safety and soundness of our banking system,”  he said.

Mmmm…this sounds like it might have a parallel somewhere south of the border.

“Healthy small businesses are critical to job growth but have a harder time expanding payrolls than large companies without sufficient access to credit,” Mr. Bernanke continued.

I ain’t talking about Mexico?

According to Nick Bunkley from the NY Times,  Bernanke urged banks to examine loan applicants’ businesses thoroughly and to “avoid mechanical, automatic rejections” based solely on the companies’ industry, location or other negative factors.

Let’s forget the charade. The plight of SMEs in Australia, mirrors the situation in the US.

Glenn Stevens could take a leaf out of Ben’s book and start to lobby the banks on behalf of small business.

I suppose if anything, the situation for SMEs in Australia is worse. They just don’t have the same amount of financing options as their US counterparts.

We (AR Cash Flow) launched two products recently. Unsecured Import Finance and Progress Payment Funding. Both were targeted at SMEs. We have been getting calls from not only prospective clients but also mainstream financial institutions asking us how we are able to provide these services.

The answer’s not rocket science. Similar services have been available in the UK, Europe and the US for over a decade. We just modified them for the Australian market.

Which is good for us, but kinda sad for Australia.

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