Banks: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Lord Cotter Excerpts

Wednesday 12th March 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Popat]

I agree with my noble friend. We now have three different schemes for equity financing within the British Business Bank.

[Lord Cotter (LD)]

My noble friend has just said that, following the consultation, the Government will look at all options. Does this include the previous commitment to producing legislation to address this very serious issue of funding for small businesses and others?

[Lord Popat]

My Lords, as I said, we are looking at all the options. If the need arises because we are not successful by the end of 2014, I am sure that the department will look at maybe coming up with some sort of legislation to see what we can do to make the banks more transparent.