Committee to quiz bank chiefs on credit availability
The country's pillar banks will face questions over the next two days on what they are doing to ensure that credit is made available to small and medium enterprises.
The banks have come in for criticism from SMEs for not giving enough financial assistance to viable businesses.
Small and start-up firms have also claimed they are being discouraged from making formal credit applications by banks, and that banks are not clearly outlining their application criteria.
The banks, however, dispute the claims saying credit is flowing into the SME sector and have urged business owners to make formal loan and overdraft applications.
AIB chiefs will answer questions on the matter at the Oireachtas Finance Committee today, while Bank of Ireland is due to appear before the Committee tomorrow.
