SILLY BANKS

Before the financial crisis, banks lent money to all sorts of silly things. Since the financial crisis, the pendulum has swung completely the other way, and they won't lend money to anything that isn't secured with belt and braces.

Our local cinema has a healthy turnover and makes money, despite having been through a major renovation project last summer. However, we now have a series of bills that have to be paid, notably our insurance, which has to be paid a whole year in advance. The normal course of action would be to get a small overdraft from the bank, secured by a mortgage on our building and equipment. However, the banks now have a rule that they won't lend under any circumstances to a club (even though we have good assets worth ten times the potential overdraft and are debt free), since nobody can give personal guarantees.

This is a silly rule. At some point, the pendulum will of course begin to swing back the other way again; but by that time, we won't need them.

Walter Blotscher