Today the Bank of England released the results of its Credit Conditions Survey for Q1 2008. This survey of bank and non-bank lenders, conducted between 25 February and 19 March 2008, provides a useful indication of current credit conditions and future trends in the supply (availability) and demand for credit.

Overall credit conditions in the UK tightened over the past three months, with the survey reporting that lenders reduced the availability of credit across their lending activities to households and businesses and expect to do so again in the coming three months.

The main findings of today’s survey release are as follows:

Secured lending to households and businesses

• Lenders reduced the availability of credit made to households and the business sector in the past three months of 2008 and expect to reduce credit further over the next three months. This is primarily a reflection of a reduced risk appetite and increased concerns about the macroeconomy (and the housing market in particular). Demand is expected to fall over the next three months.

• Lenders reported that spreads on secured lending had increased significantly across all types of borrowers during the past three months. Spreads were expected to widen further over the coming three months.

• Default rates and losses on loans in default increased over the past three months, and were expected to increase further over the coming three months.
Unsecured lending to households and small businesses

• Lenders reduced the availability of unsecured credit during the past three months of 2008, and expect to reduce availability over the next three months. This is primarily a reflection of tightening in credit scoring criteria applied to applications for non credit card unsecured borrowing. Demand is expected to fall over the next three months.

• Spreads on non-credit card unsecured lending had increased over the past three months and were expected to remain broadly unchanged over the coming three months.

• Lenders reported that default rates on credit card debt had fallen slightly over the past three months, though default rates on non-credit card unsecured loans were reported to have increased slightly.

Lending to corporates

• Lenders reported that they had reduced overall credit availability to corporates over the past three months of 2008 and report a fall in credit demand from medium sized corporates.

• Spreads on new lending increased over the past three months, coupled with higher commissions and fees. Over the next three months, lenders expected a further widening in spreads, and a further increase in fees.

• Default rates and losses on loans in default were expected to increase over the coming three months.

If anyone would like a copy of the Bank of England’s publication, please let me know.

Source: Finance and Leasing Association

An excellent take on business meetings by Author, Broadcaster and Consultant Guy Browning:-

” Half of every working day is spent in meetings, half of which are not worth having and, of those that are, half the time is wasted. Which means that nearly one third of business life is spent in small rooms with people you don’t like, doing things that don’t matter. The only reason people have so many meetings is that they’re the one time you can get away from your work, your ‘phone and your customers.

People say that the secret of a good meeting is preparation. But if people really prepared for meetings, the first thing they would realise is that most are completely unnecessary. In fact, a tightly run meeting is one of the most frightening things in public life. These are meetings before which you have to prepare, during which you have to work and after which you have to take actions. Fortunately, these meetings are as rare as a sense of gay abandon in the finance department.

Time in meetings is always different from real time. A quick ten-minute catch-up can fill a whole morning. One of the reasons for this is that work in meetings doesn’t actually start until someone says, “I’ve got a meeting to go to.” A cancelled meeting is the sweetest thing in office life. One way of making your life in the office a lot easier is to book a lot of unnecessary meetings and then cancel 90 per cent of them. This leaves your diary almost completely free for relaxation, or work if you’re that way inclined.

When you go on a week’s holiday you miss an average ten meetings but, curiously, no one misses you. That’s because meetings have a life of their own, regardless of the people in them. The moral of this is, that whenever someone asks you to be in a meeting, say that although nothing would give you more pleasure, sadly you are going to be on holiday. The following week carry a suitcase rather than a briefcase round the office in case someone spots you walking past a meeting you are supposed to be in.

Meetings are a lot like heaters in old taxis – they just recycle hot air until you get a headache and have to open the window. Airtime in meetings is generally hogged by those with the loudest voices and biggest egos. Normally these are the very same people who come up with the worst ideas.

All the best thoughts and ideas in any meeting are had by people who contribute absolutely nothing and sit in total silence. Most meetings are spent either talking about problems arising from work that hasn’t been done or talking about work that needs to be done to tackle problems. There are so many of these meetings that there is very little time to do any work or solve any problems, which means only one thing – more meetings.

Breakfast meetings are different from other meetings in that people are asleep at the start rather than at the end. One of the problems with business breakfasts is that you can never eat what you normally have for breakfast. No one’s going to be impressed at a top-level meeting if you’re tucking into a bowl of Coco Pops. Instead, you have to eat things that only religious zealots and French people would touch, like grapefruit and croissants.”

Source