Barclays boss rejects targets for small business loans

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Despite ministers' fears that a drought in credit is threatening the economic recovery, Steve Cooper, head of Barclays' small business division, said he would not want to comply with lending targets.

"I'm not going to sign up to a target. I don't want to create an expectation that if Barclays said no yesterday it could say yes tomorrow [because it has a target to achieve]," Cooper told the Financial Times.

Barclays' part-nationalised rivals Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland have agreed to lending targets but last month Business Secretary Vince Cable announced plans to widen the agreements to other banks.

The Government wants banks, which have made £15 billion in half-year profits, to use their gains to increase the flow of credit rather than handing out bumper bonuses and dividends.

But the banks believe the problem is one of demand for credit, not supply. Cooper's dismissal of the proposed lending targets follows a similar rejection from HSBC earlier in the month.