Providing capital at below-market price will help European banks lend to SMEs.

Lending to SMEs declined again in the second quarter of 2012, according to the Central Bank data.

The executive European Commission has also asked insurance regulators to ease Solvency II provisions on lending to SMEs.

The committee was reacting to a presentation on the third Mazar's report on lending to SMEs published in April.

Lending to SMEs rose slightly during the first six months of 2014, according to new figures published by the Central Bank.

The OECD, in its report on Ireland, noted that banks have met the targets set by the Government for lending to SMEs.

Within the overall lending drop there was a £0.5bn fall on the month in lending to SMEs.

He denies banks aren't lending to SMEs, countering, talking to my friends at Barclays, they seem to be doing a lot of business.

Lending to SMEs fell again in the second quarter of 2012 by €390 million or 1.4 per cent.

Data, he said, shows that just 5 percent of lending to SMEs comes from non banks versus nearly 50 percent in the United States.