It’s tough these days being an electronics company in the US if you need help from your bank. The American Electronics Association in Santa Clara commissioned First Financial Banc Corp to survey 410 banks, and found that in May, only 121 were prepared to provide new loans to electronic companies firms and even that was a big increase over the number found in December 1991, which was just 74 or 18%. First Banc Corp found that high tech firms with just one year of losses in the past three years are automatically precluded from most major bank financing, and those banks that will lend to these companies do so at a higher than average interest rate. Lending criteria for technology companies is still far more stringent than for most other industries, the Association notes.
