Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Gavin Strang (Labour). It was answered on Wednesday, 18 March 2009 on behalf of the Scotland Office.

Credit

Question: Does my right hon. Friend agree that banks are the main source of credit to business? That is why he is right to remind hon. Members of the important intervention that the Government made to stabilise the banking system. Does he agree that all the banks, not least RBS and Lloyds-HBOS, now have an obligation to do all they can to support Scottish business and business generally throughout the UK?

Answer: I agree with my right hon. Friend, and RBS and the Lloyds group have committed to lending more billions of pounds through the enterprise finance guarantee scheme. Legally binding—that is important—agreements have been made under the asset protection scheme for RBS to lend an additional £25 billion and for Lloyds to lend an additional £14 billion. As he said, it is important for the money to start to flow to Scottish businesses and Scottish mortgage holders so that we can have some return to stability. I think that he appreciates that it was important from October onwards to save the banks from collapse. Our action has helped to ensure that.

Secondary information