The UK government is considering rule changes that would make it easier for new banks and alternative finance providers to provide funding to small and medium-sized companies.
The proposed regulations would help new entrants to the funding market check the creditworthiness of smaller companies, the UK Treasury said in an e-mailed statement on Wednesday. Interested parties have been asked to submit their views during a consultation period that runs until Feb. 17, with the government aiming to submit legislation in the next session of parliament.
“The government is determined to build a banking system that supports Britain’s economy and its small and medium-sized businesses,” British Financial Secretary to the Treasury Sajid Javid said in the statement. “The best way to deliver this is to increase competition in the sector and remove the barriers to new sources of finance.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron’s government and the Bank of England have sought to spur lending to small and medium-sized businesses after the financial crisis led to a dearth of credit. While Britain’s economic growth has been gathering strength, business lending has not recovered to the same extent as household credit.
If the rules are implemented, banks will be required to share their credit data on small and medium-sized businesses through credit reference companies, the Treasury said.
“Requiring banks to share data is an important part of creating a more level playing field that will enable more providers to enter the market,” Javid said.
British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Business Secretary Vince Cable announced earlier this month that the government would provide an extra £250 million (US$410 million) to increase lending to small businesses through its so-called business bank, which will become fully operational next fall.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day