ISME, the Irish SME Association, today (18th October) released its quarterly Bank Watch survey for Q3’18. The results show a small decrease in loan refusal rates, decreasing from 36% to 29%. Demand for credit has increased from 31% to 36%. Waiting time from decision to drawdown is on average 8 weeks. The Association highlights the need for more credit to be made available to SMEs, its concern at the continued high number of refusal rates and the length of time it’s taking for SMEs to access finance. It calls for banks to promote the SBCI funds in a unified manner.