THE cries for help from cash-strapped firms are getting louder while the banks scale back on their lending.

Bosses have been writing to The Straits Times Forum pages complaining that banks are refusing to even talk to them about how to cope with the economic slowdown, let alone extending financial life-lines to keep operations going.

The fear in the business community is that they could see their firms go the way of listed TT International, which owns the Akira brand of electronics appliances.

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