ADS is aware that some SME Member Companies continue to struggle to get banking support for financing and bonding, particularly when exporting. The instances have been relatively infrequent and so historically insufficient to gain a ground swell to challenge prevailing banking attitudes and behaviours.
However, we understand from a recent discussion with the DIT that the situation is also impacting HMG’s efforts to attract inward investment from offshore SME defence companies and so, if this is an issue for our Members, now may be a good time to raise this issue and achieve some serious traction within Government.
Consequently we have agreed that it would be appropriate to undertake a quick and simple survey of our SME Members to get a better understanding of the scale and scope of the challenge that they are facing.
- Is getting bank support for financing and bonding, etc of export orders a challenge for SMEs?
- If you have had challenges with bank financing and bonding over the last 5 years, we would really appreciate hearing from you.
Please can you drop me a quick email, ideally by return, but certainly by Friday 19 February, with a short summary of the challenge, the outcome, and any third parties involved Brinley.Salzmann@adsgroup.org.uk
We are not seeking any commercially-confidential information, and we will keep any information provided entirely confidential.
Once we have received responses we can gauge the prevalence of the issue and make a decision on how best to proceed. We will work closely with the team at the DIT to gain the maximum leverage through Government channels, and keep respondees informed of our progress.
Many thanks in advance.
If you have any questions, please contact me at: Brinley.Salzmann@adsgroup.org.uk.
