Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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134. To ask the Minister for Finance the data in each of the years 2014 to 2018 and to date in 2019 for rejected bank finance applications by SMEs that were appealed to the Credit Review Office; the number and percentage of applications successfully appealed and for which finance was sanctioned; and the number and percentage of applications that were not successfully appealed, in tabular form. [53284/19]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Since the Credit Review Office (CRO) was established, in 2010, the Credit Reviewer has issued regular formal reports which contain details on the appeals processed. The reports can be found on the website www.creditreview.ie

Details of the number of appeals for the period in question have been collated and presented in the following table, as requested.

The Deputy may wish to note that, in addition, to the formal Credit Review, the CRO Helpline has taken 1,921 calls, which has resulted in many borrowers’ queries and credit issues being resolved before a formal appeal process was necessary.

As per the guidelines for those institutions that participate in the credit review process, banks are required to ‘comply or explain’, if they do not agree with the opinion of the CRO.

The CRO also provided figures for cases where new information was discovered as a result of the review process that resulted in a bank requesting the case to be withdrawn and made the credit available to the borrower.

Where the CRO upholds a bank’s decision not to lend, it provides the borrower with a set of recommendations to address the weaknesses in the proposal. There are a number of specific Information documents on the CRO website that were developed to address common issues, faced by borrowers.

It should be noted that cases are abandoned for a number of reasons such as the borrower obtaining credit elsewhere, or it becoming evident to the borrower that the loan proposal is not viable after speaking with the Credit Reviewer.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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135. To ask the Minister for Finance the number and proportion of SMEs that requested finance from non-bank providers in each of the years 2014 to 2018 and to date in 2019; and if the same information will be provided for SMEs that requested finance from bank providers in tabular form. [53285/19]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Central Bank of Ireland or the Department of Finance does not collate or publish loan level data for non-bank and bank finance providers in the State.

However, my Department, closely monitors developments in the SME credit environment, including the application rates of SMEs, through its biannual SME Credit Demand Survey. This informative survey series can be accessed through the Department’s website here:

The SME Credit Demand survey is based on a randomly selected representative sample of 1,500 SMEs. The sample error for a survey of this nature is good and has a margin of error of +/- 2.66%, at a 95% significance level.

SMEs were asked in separate questions if they applied or made inquiries for bank finance and non-bank finance respectively. The proportion of SMEs that answered yes to these questions is set out in percentage terms in the following table.

*Preliminary estimate, to be confirmed.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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136. To ask the Minister for Finance the data in each of the years 2014 to 2018 and to date in 2019 for SME bank finance applications which required some form of collateral; the proportion of such applications which required a personal guarantee from the business owner; and the proportion of applications which required collateral in the form of a property of the business or other forms of collateral, in tabular form. [53287/19]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Central Bank of Ireland or the Department of Finance does not collate and publish loan level data.

However, my Department, closely monitors developments in the SME credit environment, including the level of SME applications for credit that required some form of collateral and the type of collateral sought by the bank, through its biannual SME Credit Demand Survey. This informative survey series can be accessed through the Department’s website . The survey also reports on the terms and conditions attached to bank loans including personal guarantees.

The SME Credit Demand Survey is based on a randomly selected representative sample of 1,500 SMEs. The sample error for a survey of this nature is good and has a margin of error of +/- 2.66%, at a 95% significance level.

The following table sets out the overall percentage of applications that required collateral with a percentage breakdown of the type of collateral for each survey. It should be noted, for comparative purposes, the survey to March for each year was selected.

The following table sets out the percentage of loan applications that required a personal guarantee.