LENDING PICTURE HAS BRIGHTENED, SAYS CRO CHIEF - The Credit Review Office was established by the Minister of Finance last year in an attempt to deal with complaints that the main banks had turned off the credit taps to small and medium-sized companies.
It has been in operation for 10 months now and seeks to mediate between banks and customers to whom they have refused credit.
John Trethowan, who heads the Credit Review Office, says there has been a continuing improvement in the climate for lending at AIB and Bank of Ireland.
He says the conventional wisdom that banks are not lending may have been true 12-18 months ago, but he said both banks have 'reached out to the market' to say that they were open for business for viable businesses.
Reacting to criticism from small business group ISME, Mr Trethowan said his office was working well with other groups representing businesses, such as Chambers Ireland and the SFA.
He also said he would like to hear more from some of the foreign-owned banks in Ireland about their attitude to small business lending.
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IMF 'BOWED TO UK PRESSURE' - The Financial Times reports this morning on the findings of the IMF's independent watchdog, which found that the UK Treasury, Bank of England and Financial Services Authority concealed important information from the IMF and put pressure on it to tone down warnings before the financial crisis.
The report finds that the IMF's main problem in failing to spot the vulnerability of the UK economy to the financial crisis in the years 2005 to 2007 was that fund officials were too soft on British officials, and willingly participating in 'groupthink'.
