Many SMEs lack equity: Bank

Commercial banks lend to the small business sector but many small businesses do not have capital or equity, Kina Bank chief executive officer Greg Pawson says.
Speaking at the SME breakfast on Friday, Pawson said there was criticism or bad perception on banks that they did not lend to small businesses.
“As a bank, we are never going to take 100 per cent of the risk, we will always be asking the business owner to put in some capital themselves,” he said.
Pawson said the bank was now developing a special loan product for SMEs which would have special rates for those borrowing up to a million kina.
“Unfortunately we didn’t get to participate in the Government’s sponsored scheme but we think this will be a good solution extending the term out in a lower rate than what we currently offer today,” Pawson said.
“We are developing an advisory services model for small business and these are a broad range of services from putting together a business plan and cash flow, helping to build a website, developing a social media strategy that we can do with the access that we have to other businesses out there.
“We will act as the coordination point to assist customers with those types of services.
“The final one which we are excited about is to develop an innovation hub for tech, small business tech and business that have those ideas and support digital economy as we move forward.”