The Forum of Private Business is hosting the confidential questionnaire on behalf of the OFT in an effort to find out how business owners are being treated by the major lenders.
The move comes after new figures from the British Bankers’ Association out yesterday, which show bank lending to businesses fell again last month, placed fresh scrutiny on the relationships between banks and smaller companies.
The Forum hopes as many small firms as possible will take part in the online survey to provide the OFT with clear evidence of bank-related problems and difficulties facing business owners.
The Forum’s research manager, Thomas Parry, said: “Clearly, the issue of the way banks treat small firms has received an enormous amount of attention recently and sparked a lot of debate.
“One the one hand, groups like the Forum have been arguing that viable smaller firms are being unjustifiably denied credit, or offered it at an extortionate cost, by risk-averse banks which often don’t understand their needs.
“On the other hand, the banks and their industry groups have claimed that lending is down simply because demand is down and they are doing everything they can to increase the flow of finance to business. There is also a wider debate about competition between banks, with some critics arguing that smaller firms, particularly in Scotland, face a limited amount of choice in the marketplace,” said Parry.
He added he hoped the survey will give the OFT insight into the valid concerns many small business owners have over their relationships with their banks, and the banking industry in general.
The survey is being carried out as part of the OFT’s ongoing review of barriers to entry, expansion and exit in retail banking.
