Banks on target for Project Merlin business lending

The UK’s major banks remain on course to meet their targets for lending to businesses as part of their commitment to Project Merlin.

In February, the banks said they were aiming to lend £190bn of new credit to business in 2011, of which £76bn would go to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

According to the latest figures from the Bank of England, the five major banks, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander, made £53bn of gross lending facilities available in Q2, of which £20.5bn was for SMEs.

This comes on top of £47.3bn in the first quarter, of which £16.8bn was for SMEs.

Earlier this year, Vince Cable criticised the banks for falling short of the £19bn per quarter target they needed to meet on lending to SMEs and threatened them with extra taxes if they continued to fall short.