The much maligned Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) that began last August in the UK under the guidance of the Bank of England was due to end in January 2014, but today it was announced that it would be extended by another year until 2015.
The Bank of England has come under fire since the launch of the scheme – designed to increase the access to finance for small businesses – as lending has in fact decreased among the banks that participated.
Under the changes announced today, there will apparently be even greater incentives for banks to loan to SMEs. Do you think it will work to increase lending or have small enterprises realised that bootstrapping is a far more viable and sensible option than getting a bank loan?
