National Australia Bank is looking forward to a significant increase in its share of lending to business in today's release of monthly banking statistics from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, following a decision by the regulator to reclassify an innovative business finance product.Since 2007 NAB has offered SMEs a product called Business Market Loan, which is based on a standard term loan but includes access to financial market products.Executive general manager NAB Business, Geoff Greer, said the product has picked up a lot of momentum in the past year as customer awareness has grown and NAB's business bankers have become more confident about selling it. He said BML was now the bank's fastest growing business banking product and made up 10 per cent of business loans.APRA has not classified BML in loans and advances because of its market features but has been persuaded to change its classification, with the change reflected in tomorrow's release of data.BML allows business to vary their loan terms. They can switch from variable to fixed or have a mix of variable and fixed. They can set caps and collars on their rates. They can vary repayment amounts and take repayment holidays. Maturities are flexible.Greer said: "It allows customers to tailor their funding to their cash generation ability. Cash flows go up and down with seasonal conditions and changing business conditions. BML makes it easy to change payment terms."Greer said the product was also designed to give customers greater certainty."Two big uncertainties in business are interest rates and exchange rates. BML allows them to take some of the uncertainty out of the equation."We see this is part of the development of a wider business relationship. We have interest rate and exchange rate people in our business centres who explain the applications of the product to our customers. Greer said there was no premium for the product. Rates are negotiable and there is no extra fee.