Bank welcomes pre-Budget report - commercial mortgages

26 November 2008

Measures aimed at helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) unveiled in the pre-Budget report have been hailed by a financial expert.

Noel Quinn, the head of UK commercial banking at HSBC, said the bank welcomes the chancellor's initiatives on aiding small firms.

"We are pleased that the government has introduced these measures to support SMEs and we look forward to working closely with them on this," he remarked.

He added that HSBC is one of the "few banks that has been continually open for business during the last 18 months".

Those with commercial mortgages may stand to benefit from the announcements on supporting SMEs included in the chancellor's report.

Among these was a new Business Finance Scheme that is to be set up to provide up to £1 billion of bank lending to companies and a £50 million fund to convert firms' debts into equity.