Banks becoming less important in finacing UK exports

UK exporters are turning away from their banks as a source of financial advice. This is according to the Atradius Export Survey 2006. The research, carried out for Atradius by the Credit Management Research Centre (CMRC) found that only 20.3% of respondents to the survey seek trade finance advice from their banks and 9.7% of companies never do.

These figures, when compared to the 2002 survey findings, clearly show a trend away from banks as sources of export trade finance advice. In 2002, 34% of exporters sought advice from their bank and only 7% never did so.

Interestingly, SMEs were more likely to seek bank advice, with more than half of companies with a turnover of less than 10 million reporting they do so regularly. However, these companies also make up the majority of the 38% of companies that had experienced difficulties in raising finance from their bank.

20.3% of companies ask for trade finance advice from their banks ñ down from 34% in 2002

The main source (51.6%) of trade finance advice comes from bank business centres ñ up 13.5% from 2002

The majority of companies that do seek finance advice from banks have a turnover of between 1 million and 10 million ñ just over 60% of this group do 38% of companies said theyíd experienced difficulty in raising finance for their business, a rise of 11% from 2002 figures (27%)

Commenting, Will Clark, Atradius Regional Director for UK and Ireland, NAFTA and Australasia, said: ìIt is interesting to note that although SMEs are more likely to go to their bank for advice they are still more likely to have problems obtaining finance to grow their business. SMEs tend to have smaller customers with less stable cash flow than their larger counterparts and are therefore considered themselves more risky by the banks. However, as more smaller companies start to use cash flow protection measures such as credit insurance to protect their more risky customers, we are likely to see this trend reversed in the near future.î