Bank doubles lending to North East businesses to £300m

Jul 6 2009 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

Lloyds commitment to increased lending comes at a time when many companies are still finding it difficult to raise funds, as a result of the continuing ramifications of the credit crunch, and has been welcomed in the North East business community.

James Ramsbotham, chief executive of the North East Chamber of Commerce, said: “It’s pleasing to hear North East bankers saying they are here to support good businesses.

“We are in this position because of the credit crunch and the subsequent shortage of funding for businesses, but we are getting the feeling from the other banks, as well as Lloyds, that the situation is beginning to improve. This is good news for North East businesses.”

The Lloyds corporate team, which now comprises of the merged LloydsTSB and Bank of Scotland corporate banking teams looks after businesses with sales of between £15m and £200m.

Mr Mullaney says it currently has 20% of this market but regularly talks to most of the region’s larger companies.

So far this year Mr Mullaney say business activity is up 18% and its sales pipeline shows a 30% rise on last year with Lloyds working across the board.

Mark Stokes, director of UK large corporate banking for Lloyds Banking Group said: “We are continuing to grow and over the coming months, as we continue to integrate the Lloyds and Bank of Scotland teams, we will continue to support business in the North East region...

“As we integrate the Bank of Scotland team, we will have one of the largest corporate teams in the North East.

“We are committed to lending £300m this year - twice what we lent last year.”