Banks need to listen to the Institute of Directors

The Institute of Directors is not, by instinct, one of life's bank-bashers. That is why the warning this week from Miles Templeman, its director general, deserves investigation. "We consistently get feedback that banks are not giving enough support to businesses which are not high risk but desperately need the working capital," he said. Bankers usually try to rubbish such grumbles by saying demand for lending, not its supply, is the problem – that was the line from RBS's Stephen Hester on Tuesday. The last government appeared sympathetic by accepting that there were good reasons why its lending targets were missed. But a proper inquiry to get to the bottom of the issue is urgently needed. The IoD is probably not inventing those complaints.