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© Business Money Ltd 2006 |
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BBA's SME Banking Seminar1 March 2005 My relationship with the BBA has ever been anchored by my old chum Brian Capon. It was Brian who called me two days after the first issue of Business Money hit the street, or to be more precise, landed on the desks of the major banks’ chief executives in June 1993. The reason for the call was our much remembered feature on the results of putting our business bank account out to tender. Midland Bank had declined to quote, maybe the forebear of a philosophy we have only recently encountered once more under the HSBC banner. The legendary Brian Pearce, brilliant but doomed to the dreaded second class citizen, ‘non-family’ status at Barclays, which magnanimously concurred with a Bank of England wish to see him go to rescue Midland from its post-Crocker traumas, had read the feature and Brian, as his senior press relations man, was deputed to mend the fence. Over the past 11 years Brian has kept me informed on the, sometimes almost bewildering, huge changes at the BBA. For its part, Business Money says, and thoroughly enjoys saying, some of the more robust things in defence of our bankers employing a direct and somewhat less than diplomatic demeanour that may seem inappropriate being uttered from the basement at Skinner’s Hall. Let me add that this initiative is entirely driven by Business Money. I was delighted to be asked to sit on a panel at the BBA seminar on SME banking though this was the closing act of an informative conference. I guess it was unfortunate that Blair had just announced a whole new raft of maternity law encumbrances to the SME sector, as the first speaker, Rory Earley, director of SME finance, Small Business Service, was reading a speech from Nigel Griffiths to which I have alluded earlier in this edition (‘Beating the wrong drum’ – page17). ‘They just don’t get it do they?’ is the reaction you get every time someone from government opens their mouth on business matters today. They may just as well be addressing some newly discovered tribe in the jungle on the complexities of nuclear physics. Sure, the Business Links, once the refuge for swarms of embittered former bankers, have now, in many cases, got a much better act together but the speech, some misleading propaganda about the economy apart, was all about regulation. This administration is obsessed with regulation and nothing else. Griffith’s speech writers tried to tell us that once confronted, businesses did not find regulation so bad after all and we had a quote from the boss of Carphone Warehouse, probably just maybe now eyeing a gong, who said he would much rather do business in Britain of all the 11 countries in which Carphone Warehouse is established. Forgive me. The BBA has to conduct a massive consultation and lobbying exercise to ensure that our administration does as little damage to the nation’s colossal banking industry as possible and much credit is due to it. But any SME owners response to Griffith’s speech, swear words and expressions of disbelief deleted, would take up very little page space indeed. Mark Hambly, head of policy, debt finance, also of the Small Business Service, had some academic and practical points on SME finance. A particular strength of government support for business has been the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme. Maybe typically of the culture gap between business and government, the latter does not always realise how good this scheme really is, though recent reviews have included a restriction that it is for younger businesses only. There are some short memories around. Following the end of our disastrous EMU membership when the nation was economically on the ropes, our SME sector bounced back but, with full order books and no capital, money was needed desperately. The SFLG Scheme rode to the rescue but it was cash-strapped, mature businesses which it supported. Nick Goulding of the Forum of Private Business delivered one of his customarily balanced talks, full of common sense, full of the realities of business life, such a shame that he is not the minister for small business. Todd Roberts, having just landed from America, took us through the benefits of effective customer segmentation and Professor Elaine Kempson gave us a delightfully human account of updating the banking codes. The panel then took the stage. John Rendall, head of business banking at HSBC, Stephen Pegge, head of external affairs Lloyds TSB, Nigel McEwen, a partner at Tarlo Lyons and your editor fielded some questions from the floor. The lunchtime gatherings at such conferences often yield some new friends and one in particular will be having some influence on some developments within Business Money, but that is a secret for a month or two more. My thanks to Joanna Elson, who ran the conference smoothly from the chair, for inviting me and for an informative and educational morning. Editor
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