Bad lending would only make banking crisis worse

PAUL Andrews (Yorkshire Post, August 30) goes with the populist flow by suggesting that “the banks should be compelled to lend more to businesses”, and that “they should be made to lend disproportionately in the North”.

It is all very well making such statements, but, if put into practice, what would it achieve?

Surely it is vital that our banks only lend to good banking propositions, rather than the risky lending that seemed to take place in more recent times? The sooner they all go back to the old accepted canons of lending, the better it will be for both businesses and the banks.

While there may be an argument that, on some occasions, the banks are being too conservative, it will do no-one any good if the purse strings are slackened too much.

We will simply end up back where we were only a couple of years ago with unhealthy banks and businesses with too much borrowing.

What is perhaps needed more than anything is the return of the experienced local branch manager who knew his patch and the people far better than seems to be the case now.

More decisions made at that level would certainly help but, unfortunately, most of the banks seem to have got rid of too many such individuals