The National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) attended the EU Conference on SME Funding and Bank Relations in Brussels yesterday.

The trade association was invited as part of a wider debate across all the EU states to help small businesses get better access to finance. It gave the NACFB a chance to highlight how its view that the UK market operates with the broker market to offer easier access to finance for SMEs than any other European country.

Adam Tyler, the NACFB’s CEO, said: “This was a great opportunity to represent the UK as their sole spokesperson not only on behalf of the NACFB, but also as a member of the Genesis Initiative that represents 1.4 million SMEs.

“This is a Europe-wide initiative and I spoke alongside individuals from Germany, France, Finland, Austria, Italy, Belgium and Greece to name just some of those present.”

Tyler said the overriding feeling was that the UK market is doing much better that any of the other except possibly Germany. There were some really difficult lending conditions in a number of countries and it was pleasing that the UK was recognised as showing real positive growth in lending to SMEs, he said.

Tyler added: “It would not have been complete if we had not touched upon the Consumer Credit Act. So this was our big chance to highlight in this European environment how our broker model has really helped SME lending and that further regulation could only hinder our growth.”