Commenting on Ed Miliband’s speech on banking reform today, EEF Chief Economist Ms Lee Hopley said:
‘After last week’s fractious debate on the LIBOR scandal, it’s important that the debate on access to finance refocuses on the issues that matter to business growth and investment in the UK.
‘Ed Miliband’s speech today helpfully broadened out the debate on structural reform of the financial sector to include greater competition – an issue highlighted by the Cruickshank report more than ten years ago and again by the Vickers Commission last year.
‘However, before rushing into particular solutions we need to be clear what the problems are. The most pressing priorities that any structural reform of the financial sector needs to address are the availability and cost of credit for our growing SMEs.
‘Proposed solutions need to be examined for how they measure up in addressing these priorities. And we need to be careful before assuming there is any one solution that will quickly produce a radically improved situation for SMEs in the UK.’
ENDS