Small businesses must look beyond bank lending

Ireland’s small firms must look beyond traditional bank lending, to explore new sources of funding, to ensure they are not missing out on low-cost financing that could help them to thrive, according to Nick Ashmore, chief executive of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI).

Small businesses are more dependent on banks than their European counterparts, Ashmore said.

“The recently published Central Statistics Office ‘Access to Finance’ survey showed that few medium-sized enterprises ...