The Bank of England's October report on Trends in Lending states that credit availability for small businesses fell slightly in Q3.
The Federation of Small Businesses says 52% of small businesses would describe the availability of credit as either 'poor' or 'very poor'.
I've written before about how easy it is to put a spin on survey results. 52% sounds bad - it's a majority - but on the other hand, 75% of small businesses said the same thing two years ago, so maybe we should be reporting this as a huge improvement.
You could spin this as a near 50% increase in the number of SMEs who don't think credit availability is poor. Now that would be a "good news story".
Large businesses aren't facing the same difficulties, with lending rising from about £50 billion in the first half of 2013 to above £60 billion in the first half of 2014.
In reacting to discovering they are not the favoured child, small businesses are at least turning more towards alternative finance.
The proportion of SMEs using only bank loans, bank overdrafts or credit cards declined between 2011 and the first half of 2014 from 29% to 20%.
For example, peer-to-peer funding, while still a very small slice of the pie, is at least on the menu for the first time among the Bank of England measured statistics. It has been one of the big growth stories in our own annual survey this year. In fact, we started measuring it before the Bank of England did.
The Bank of England's Credit Conditions Survey - which is based on talks with lenders - admits that demand for bank lending increased most significantly from medium and large corporations, and that large corporations were most favourably treated.
That suggests lenders remain risk-averse and small businesses have got the hint.
Demand for unsecured lending is "expected to rise", and now the alternative funders are cashing in by lending cash out.
We still have a handful of tables still available for our Gala Dinner at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge on 20 November, where I daresay we'll probably still be getting to grips with the finer points of FCA regulation.
Register at nacfb.org.uk/events if you'd like to come along.
*Adam Tyler is chief executive officer of the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers.
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