Small vs BIG

Date : June 2004

To : The Editor, The Director

From : Nagindas Khajuria

Subject : Small vs Big

SMALL vs BIG

Banking

Your article on SMEs and banks highlighted the fact that although banks make billions of pounds every year, they don't really help SMEs and sometimes overcharge them.

We should consider the help growing business get in Germany, where small local authorities not only lend to SMEs, but also invest in them. They therefore have intimate knowledge of the local businesses.

Here, the big banks hardly have any trading knowledge of SMEs. Local banks and local authorities working with business in clusters, exploiting informal networks and with storage incentives to develop the local economy cannot be achieved by the big four banks dictating from their head offices miles away.