April, 26, 2010

Ulster Bank's Head of Business Banking, Henry Elvin, said that agri-food is one of the sectors the bank is most strongly targeting with money available through its fund for small to medium sized enterprises.Mr Elvin was speaking at a special briefing on the agricultural industry at Ulster Bank's Belfast headquarters.He said that while the bank's engagement with the Stormont First Minister's 'Action Group' on banking within NI continued, the extra cash for loans had not resulted from these meetings.

Rather, he explained, it flowed from resources being allocated by the parent busines, RBS, which was based on previous excellent performance at the Ulster.Henry Elvin pointed out that Ulster Bank, which is the principal sponsor of the Balmoral Show, had lent in excess of the £250m it had committed to Northern Ireland SMEs in 2009 and that a significant amount of this lending had been to agriculture.But he said that the bank is determined to further increasing its lending to the SME sector as a whole and to agriculture in particular.

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