Question reference: S4W-24453
- Asked by: Christina McKelvie, MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 17 February 2015
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Current status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 25 February 2015
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to encourage banks to finance small and medium-sized enterprises.
Answer
In regular meetings with banks, ministers, Scottish Government officials and our enterprise agencies will discuss access to finance for small and medium sized businesses. For example at the last local economic partnership forum on 4 November 2014, I invited the banks to consider how best to provide information relevant to small businesses to form part an integral of the finance hub on the Scottish business portal.
In tandem, the Scottish Government is providing advisory support through our enterprise agencies - Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Business Gateway, to companies before they approach lenders, helping companies build stronger propositions to improve their chances of securing funding. Viable businesses should be able to access financial products required to support the various stages of their life cycle and aid their start-up, development, growth and internationalisation.