Listening to chancellor Alistair Darling being interviewed this morning, it seems as if some progress is being made following the prime minister's pledge three weeks ago that he would "insist" on banks providing support to small- and medium-sized businesses on normal terms during the extremely abnormal times we're living through.

The wheels are being oiled and UK banks can now get their hands on some £4bn of additional funding from the European Investment Bank, meaning a much bigger pool of cash is on tap. The idea is this will effectively restore the amount of money available to what it was last year, before the world went mad. Darling pledged that the funds will be accessible "very quickly", and he's meeting with bank bosses later today to discuss it all.

Meanwhile, business secretary Peter Mandelson has been charged with setting up a group with small business representatives and banks to ensure this all happens as envisaged. Will be interesting to see who sits on that. No doubt he, Darling and Gordon Brown are acutely aware of the political disaster in prospect if thousands of small businesses fail over the next few months. The Federation of Small Businesses reports that 40 firms a day are going under at present.

Of course, these measures won't mean that if a company is a complete basket case the banks will bail it out just to be nice. But it should mean that banks can take a more normal view when it comes to extending finance facilities to SMEs. "The money is available now, on advantageous terms. It is in no-one's interest that businesses go down because banks refuse to lend them money. If it is a good business prospect they ought to listen to them with a sympathetic ear", stated Darling this very morning. Whether it means recent controversial increases in overdraft fees and lending terms are revoked, I don't know. It would be nice to think that could happen too.

So, dear PrintWeek readers, I wish you fruitful conversations with your lenders. And if it turns out they are ignoring Alistair's urgings, please get in touch.