HSBC boost lending
While other banks predict even tighter lending conditions next year, HSBC has pledged to lend £15bn
HSBC will increase its mortgage lending by 20% in 2009. Mortgage data showed last week that UK banks had approved the fewest mortgages since 1999.
As the bank prepares to set aside £15bn (nearly twice as much as in 2007), the managing director says that it has ‘no intention of closing its doors to customers’ next year.
Paul Thurston says: ‘We remain open for business to the tune of £15bn.’
Banks in the UK have faced pressure to increase lending to small businesses amid the economic downturn following the Government's £37bn bail-out of the sector, which did not include HSBC.
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by His Majesty The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.
- 
What links myself, David Beckkam and The King? We all have an affinity for the Aston Martin DB6, a car that has been unfairly punished for not being in a James Bond filmThe Aston Martin DB6 is better than the DB5, and I am tired of pretending that it isn't.
By James Fisher Published
 - 
Great Danes: These gentle giants need space, strength and industrial-strength sofasGreat Danes were originally bred to hunt big game, but they’re more into cuddles than killing.
By Florence Allen Published
 
