Beyond the banks: resources

Project publications:

We kicked off the project with a meeting for businesspeople and investors at the Daily Telegraph's offices on Tuesday 19 July. Read about what happened here in our Beyond the banks paper.

In September, we'll be following up with a report highlighting some of the most interest innovation we've come across.

Project press:

The project was highlighted in the Daily Telegraph on 19 July.

Are we missing something? Email us at financeconsultation@nesta.org.uk.

Interesting innovations:

• Funding Circle
• Borro
• Crowdcube
• Market Invoice
• In early 2010, the Treasury published an interesting survey on non-bank lending.

Missing someone? Email us at financeconsultation@nesta.org.uk.

Facts and figures:

The Bank of England's quarterly trends in lending figures provide a weather-eye on levels of business lending.

The most recent set, for Q2 2011, confirms that there is a problem (p7): "The data [from a regular survey by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills] indicate that the annual rate of growth in lending to SMEs has been negative since late 2009 and fell to -3% in February 2011. Data published by the British Bankers' Association indicate that the growth rate of lending to small businesses, defined as turnover up to £1 million, stood at -6% in December 2010, the latest available month for which these data are available. Annual lending growth to small businesses on this definition has been more negative than for the SME segment since June 2010."

Also worth watching are the quarterly Project Merlin lending figures, published by the banks as part of their agreement with the government in February 2011, and available here.

Other NESTA research:

The Vital Six Per Cent showed the importance of high growth businesses to economic growth, and Vital Growth highlighted how these businesses are performing in the downturn and some evidence of the difficulties they have raising capital.

Narrow Banking is John Kay's seminal response to the banking crisis, described by Mervyn King as "probably... the most important piece [of work] on regulation in ten years"; it highlights the poor record of banks in delivering useful financial innovations.

We have also looked at beneficial financial innovation in other areas, including the personal finance and social finance.