Don’t be surprised that if over the next few months banks start to pull in business overdrafts. There is a very good reason for this and one they will probably never admit. One thing that has come out of the credit crunch is that banks are under capitalised which in turn affects their credit ratings and the cost they borrow money which ultimately affects the rates to the average punter.

When a bank lends money against an overdraft facility it must have far more cash in reserves than any other finance facility. Therefore the more exposure it has against overdrafts the less cash it needs in reserve and as such the better it’s credit rating will be. Therefore if the banks are to improve they must improve their credit rating and one way of doing this is to reduce customers business overdrafts. This has been going on already however news on the street that the banks are up for another tidying exercise.

This will ultimately leave customers in the lurch with possibly no bank based lending alternative. The good news is that there many alternatives to the high street banks. Cash flow finance such as factoring and invoice discounting are credible alternatives. Asset refinance and EFG lending and trade and stocking facilities are also options.

As I am sure most SME owners agree there are still a  few difficult years ahead when it comes to arranging business finance via the traditional high street banks.

In our opinion banks are in a very difficult position. They are under pressure to start lending to small businesses however many of these businesses are not strong enough to justify bank support. The banks have been heavily criticised in the past for being too cavalier with their lending policy. Rock and a hard stone comes to mind.

Thankfully there are many alternative business finance solutions including cash flow finance, asset finance and refinance, trade finance and EFG funding. More often than not there is always an independent finance company willing to structure a deal when the banks cannot help.

Just over a week into the new year we have already had several enquiries from businesses having cash flow difficulties following the Christmas break. The first enquiry was for a printing business looking to refinance existing machinery in order to reduce the monthly payment.

In addition the business was applying to its bank for EFG funding of £40k. In our opinion a business that has had some trading difficulties is unlikely to be eligible for bank support even with the banking of the EFG scheme. However the customer didn’t realise that not only could we reschedule the repayments on his main press but we can also release any additional equity. And guess what based on the current trade valuation we can refinance the press, release an additional £50k and provide a monthly repayment no more than he is paying at the moment. Happy days. Well until the cash runs out.

The second enquiry we had was for a timber business importing wood from Eastern Europe. The business until recent years had been fully supported by a high street bank providing a small overdraft and an import finance facility. The business being under pressure from the bank to reduce its exposure came to us for alternative funding arrangements. We were able to introduce the business to an independent trade finance company and as yet we are still awaiting the outcome. Whilst alternative funding is never a guarantee there are alternatives to the banks and it is just a case of knowing who does what!