In the latest Business Finance Bulletin Rob Warlow reviews a recent survey carried out by the Federation of Small Businesses which looked into SME confidence levels and barriers to business growth.

Many businesses don’t realise how important a clean credit record is when it comes to raising business finance. To counter this, credit reference agency Experian has launched a new support tool which Rob takes a look at.

Crowdfunding has clearly taken off with a recent successful raise for a project to drill on the moon! Rob takes a look at how the Lunar Mission One has successfully raised its first tranche of funding on Kickstarter.

In the Business Finance Tip of the Week, as part of an interview Rob shares his thoughts on the role a business owner’s experience has when it comes to the bank assessing your request for a business loan.

If you prefer to listen to this week’s edition as a podcast you can download it from our Souncloud page or click below to listen.

In this episode of the Business Finance Bulletin Rob Warlow looks at the booming Asset Finance industry following the latest figures released by the Finance and Leasing Association. Credit Reports are an important part of a bank’s lending assessment process. Rob looks at one bill you should always keep on an eye on – miss this payment and you could dent your credit record.

In the Business Finance Tip of the Week Rob talks with Steve White of Thornbury Collection Services and he shares three quick tips on getting your invoices paid and avoiding late payment and cashflow problems.

Posted on 27.12.2013, by Rob Warlow

In the government’s quest to make more finance available to SMEs it has announced its intention to help alternative financiers have access to better information on SME’s credit background.

The commitment to make it easier for newer lenders to assess loan applications via improving access to SME credit data was made in the 2013 Budget. Since then the government has been working with the Bank of England, the Office of Fair Trading, the Financial Conduct Authority, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and the banking industry to investigate options.

If you have read my blogs you will know that when assessing the creditworthiness of small businesses an important source of information for the lender is a business’ past financial performance. The problem is that more in-depth information (outside of that held by the Credit Reference Agencies) is often held by the bank that provides the business’ current account and is not widely shared.

The result of this is that challenger banks and alternative finance providers don’t have access to the same level of information as the bank with which the small business already has a relationship.

The solution being proposed by the government is that banks will be required to share information on their SME customers with other lenders through Credit Reference Agencies (CRA).

The government has opened a consultation period until mid February for industry players and other interested parties to comment. It will be interesting to see the banks responses to the request to share a deeper level of information they hold on their clients.