However the figure is an improvement compared to the 50% application rejection rate reported in Q1 this year.
Similarly 23% of SME overdraft requests were declined in Q2 compared to just 17% in the same period last year. But the rate of overdraft requests being declined had rocketed to 79% in Q1 of this year, meaning the latest figures are a marked improvement.
Of those declined a loan or overdraft, the research revealed that 25% said their bank had offered no reason and around three quarters said any advice they were given was ‘poor’.
The fifth quarterly survey, carried out by market research group BDRC Continental, shows that the number of businesses using external finance dropped from 51% to 43% in the 12 months to June 2012. Over the same period those with overdraft facilities declined from 30% to 22%.
The survey was carried on 20,000 UK-based SMEs – with less than 250 staff and turnover under £25m - from a broad range of industries including manufacturing, business services and transport, storage and communication which constituted around 7%, 26% and 7% of respondents respectively.
In response to a new question for the Q2 survey 41%, predominantly smaller and new SMEs said they had used personal finance to support their business in the past 12 months with around a quarter saying they felt it was their only option.
Profitability among respondents, although down a fraction from Q1 in 2011 (67%), remained stable at 65%, up 2% from the previous quarter.
Half of those surveyed said they planned for growth in the next 12 months but around a quarter believed that access to finance would be a major barrier.
In response to the latest figures, which show no improvement from their year-on-year equivalent despite government initiatives such as the flagging National Loan Guarantee Scheme and its successor Funding for Lending initiative, the Forum of Private Business (FPB) is encouraging business owners to appeal their banks' decisions.
The FPB said that more people needed to make use of the appeal system which, since its launch last year, has resulted in 40% of lending appeals being granted.
FPB chief executive Phil Orford said: "As of May this year 2,177 small businesses initially denied finance have had the decision completely overturned, but this is clearly just the tip of the iceberg of business owners who believe their banks have unreasonably turned them down for finance.
"It is important to shout from the rooftops that there is an appeals process, that it works, and that small businesses who feel aggrieved should use it."
Orford added: "Banks often say there is a lack of demand but it is evident that, while they understand the importance of banks, business owners are becoming alienated by mainstream lenders and are looking elsewhere – including their own personal finances."
