Alternative lending summit to be held in London

Short term lending, both for businesses and consumers, has stalled throughout the United Kingdom. With recent government and Bank of England initiatives failing to accomplish their goals, economists are searching for alternative methods to spark the business sector. 

To compound the issue, David Dooks, statistics director at the British Bankers Association, said that January's severe weather conditions led to decreased lending in an "already subdued picture of borrowing demand from households and businesses. Dook emphasized the impact that low consumer and business confidence has on the economy in general.

In response to these growing concerns, members of the U.K. creditor industry plan to gather in London on March 13 to discuss solutions to the short term lending crisis, BankCreditNews.com reports. 

According to the news source, the event will focus on four major topics: fraud prevention, debt collections, trade credit and alternative lending. Alternative short term lenders - many of which use Payment Report Builds Credit rather than traditional scoring measures - are rapidly growing in popularity in the United Kingdom. 

The British Banks Association study found that borrowing was down in January for both financial and non-financial businesses.