Over six out of ten small business owners are dissatisfied with their banks and have already switched, or are considering switching banks, but over 70% of respondents believe they are still the best places to access credit, according to a poll by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

The poll of over 500 FSB members also revealed that over 85% of SME owners think that that bank decisions on lending should be made by their local branch rather than centrally and over half prefer to communicate with their bank in person.

"While there have been efforts to restore lending to small businesses and some enterprises are being granted finance, branch managers still seem unaware or unwilling to promote funds such as the Enterprise Finance Guarantee," said John Wright, chairman of the FSB

"Businesses are complaining of unrealistic terms on finance applications and that they are not able to speak directly to those making decisions on their credit issues."

The FSB has launched seven Principles of Small Business Banking, which it hopes banks will take note of when considering small business finance requests. To view the FSB's banking guidline in full visit www.fsb.org.uk [1]