British Banks Apply an old Bill Clinton Trick
Yes, i admit it! I made a mistake in my Risky Business blog on the 6th September……but it was only a little mistake, honest! I predicted that the credit agency employed by the British Bankers Association to look into whether the 6 major banks had or had not lent to “viable” businesses during the recession would report that bank lending decisions were generally completely justified.
Findings from the credit agency research, according to Angela Knight of the BBA, reveal that around 7,000 companies may have missed out on loans they should/could have had approved during the economic downturn.
Given that the business population in the UK is around 5 million, I reckon that Angela Knight is putting her hands up and saying sorry, the banks refused to approve loans to around 0.15% of the business population that was viable and shouldn’t have been refused access to finance; an admission that a mistake was made…… but only a little one!…
I’m not sure who believes in these results, but I like the BBA’s spin on this; i.e. own up to something wrong as it makes you look honest, but then minimise the wrong doing so it looks like it didn’t matter much. I call this the old Bill Clinton trick……you know, the ” i did smoke marijuana once……but i never inhaled”.
My view is that if it was only 0.15% of the business population that was wrongly refused access to finance during the recession, no one (except of course for the businesses involved) would have noticed the problem. The truth is that anecdotal evidence up and down the country points to a much bigger problem with regard to bank lending.
Banks were probably absolutely right to reject many loan applications during the recession because the risks were too high, but I guess no one will ever know how many loans were refused for no good reason at all.