Letter: Manifesto for recovery

Sir: One reads many things in the newspapers nowadays and shrugs one's shoulders. However, I could not let pass the misleading item on your front page this morning. In your manifesto for recovery, point 4 says 'tell the banks to stop foreclosing on sound businesses'.

The banks themselves have taken heavy losses in this recession, as is inevitable since they are deep in the midst of business life in this country; basically we sink or swim with our customers. Indeed, in other parts of your paper, at times one reads criticism of those losses.

What beats me now is how you could think any bank would wish to foreclose on a sound business; a bank would only be acting against its own interest if it did so. In every case possible, a bank has every incentive to work with a business for its survival. The problem comes when the sales just aren't there; the capital base of the business is eroded and, indeed, may be insolvent, so that when any kind of upturn and increased sales are in prospect, borrowings are required to finance them that are quite beyond the ability of that business to take on.

Yours faithfully,

M. E. H. ROBINSON

Senior Manager

Business Centre

Barclays Bank

Lancaster