But perhaps you all find it easier to find your way through the maze than I do. Their needs for support are all very different. A particular problem at this end of the scale is access to start-up or early stage finance for disadvantaged groups in poor neighbourhoods. They also include other community finance organisations which provide micro-business finance alongside personal credit, such as community loan funds, often set up with the help of the commercial banks, and social banks. The Bank of England is in close contact with this work.
Similar issues arise in the context of the financing of ethnic businesses.
Our report on the issue will be published in early March. But what is also clear is that much more research needs to be done in this area. Much the largest source of external finance for the SME sector as a whole is the commercial banking system, which currently provides nearly half the total. At the time of the recession in the early 1990's it became clear that there was a serious breakdown of confidence and communication between SMEs and their main finance providers. The true culprit, of course, was the exaggerated boom and bust cycle, for which we, the authorities, ought to bear at least most of the responsibility.