Banking group HSBC says it is making £1bn ($1.4bn) in extra credit available to support small British businesses.
The government has been demanding for weeks that banks resume lending to firms struggling as credit dries up.
The bank said the money would help "fundamentally sound businesses" with cash-flow problems to "weather short-term shocks caused by the downturn".
Business Secretary Peter Mandelson welcomed the decision and urged other banks to follow HSBC's example.
WTF Peter Mandelson the twirp, how about the government appeal to the publically owned and funded banks (ie. HBOS, RBS, Lloyds, Northern Rock etc) to start helping small businesses before they start saying other banks should help?
Nice move by the HSBC, they are my bank and have always been good to me, the only major UK bank worth anything nowadays and totally independent from the government.
Now it's time for others to follow their lead and start helping. Having said that though, I do believe they need to be careful what small businesses they are lending to, because if a business is unsustainable and unviable, I hope they don't go lending them credit because "it's the nice thing to do" and then end up passing the bill onto the customer's when they do go under. It's a simple fact of life, people and businesses who have over-indulged and not prepared for a bust, need to learn the hard way, otherwise the same thing will happen again in the future.
BBC News Report
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