Cable's comments came as the department for Business, Innovation and Skills launched a green paper on the accessibility of finance for businesses, entitled Financing a Private Sector Recovery.
He said: "I've heard the problems businesses are facing in getting bank loans up and down the country. They need innovative ways to access finance from other sources to grow our firms and economy.
"If we don't anticipate and tackle finance barriers now, we could face a big problem in the future. Left unchallenged, a lack of accessible finance for businesses could prevent the recovery accelerating."
However, the British Bankers' Association hit back, claiming that demand for lending is currently low, as businesses are not keen to take on additional borrowing when the strength of the recovery is still unproven.
Nicholas Mockett, partner at Moorgate Capital, said: "On the one hand, the banks are being told to repair their balance sheets and, on the other, to lend more – against a backdrop of less liquid markets. It really is a conundrum.
"I understand that banks are lending money to existing borrowers to try to help them borrow their way out of trouble rather than to new borrowers. You can see why they would be tempted to do this – as it could tick both of the above boxes. But it is frustrating for businesses, which now need new lines of debt."
One of the proposals outlined in the government's green paper is the return of regional stock exchanges to make it easier for firms to attract local investment.
However, Mockett said: "I am not entirely convinced that regional stock markets will help. Due to economies of scale, over the years, institutional investors have tended to migrate to large cap companies – hence the dearth of printing and packaging companies on the LSE compared with 15-20 years ago.
"The argument could be made that retail investors may use the exchanges to invest in local SMEs directly, but I wonder how many people want to 'punt' on shares when they are already worried about employment, house prices, and pension funds."
