Sponsored by
Yorkshire Bank's £100m of help for SMEs
ENTREPRENEURS in Yorkshire and the North East will soon be able to benefit from a £100m fund which aims to help them survive the recession.
Yorkshire Bank's Leeds-based National Invoice Finance Team is increasing its support to SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) with a fund which will be made available through its nationwide network of 77 financial solutions centres.
Kath Myers, Yorkshire Bank's regional director for integrated financial services in Yorkshire and the North East, said: "We are committed to staying close to local businesses. It's very easy to talk about being committed to helping businesses, but we are actually doing something about it."
Invoice finance – sometimes called cash-flow finance – is a sales-driven facility which enables businesses to obtain up to 85 per cent of the value of invoices they issue immediately. The remainder is payable when payment is received.
The service means that businesses are not hampered by late payments because they will always have rapid access to funds which reflect their commercial performance.
Martin Rothera, head of the Leeds-based National Invoice Finance Team, said: "In the current economic climate, SMEs need extra support to give them a competitive edge.
"By making this new invoice finance fund available, we are helping successful businesses secure their future and get one step ahead of their competition."
Ms Myers, said: "Tougher economic conditions traditionally lead to pressure on cashflow for small to medium-sized businesses. This is compounded by a tendency among their customer businesses to delay payments, usually because they face similar difficulties.
"Invoice finance helps businesses to run smoothly by releasing a proportion of invoiced values immediately. We are sure that many will want to benefit from the additional funds available. We believe it will play an important role in helping both our existing and new business customers operate in the current climate."
Yorkshire Bank's National Invoice Team has 80 staff, based in 77 Financial Solutions Centres across the UK. A further eight jobs, including auditors and relationship managers who will work throughout the UK, are being created to help meet the anticipated demand for the bank's cash injection to the SME community.
Ms Myers added: "As well as helping existing business customers of the bank, we are keen to see new, well-managed companies benefit from this fund, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to supporting the SME community, which is the backbone of the economy.
"It will be trading businesses that will benefit from this, particularly as the order book starts to grow. Their working capital requirements are going to increase."
Yorkshire Bank's main financial solutions centres are in Leeds, Bradford, York, Hull, Doncaster, Sheffield, Tees Valley and Newcastle.
In the six months to March 31, Yorkshire Bank expanded its customer base by five per cent. Business lending rose by 14 per cent, representing 1.2bn of new money to support local business. Deposits increased by 15 per cent. In Yorkshire, the bank continued its strong performance with average lending growing by 13 per cent.
In the six months to March 31, Yorkshire Bank increased lending by 19 per cent in Leeds and 23 per cent in Bradford. Yorkshire Bank's banking model ensures that every pound raised from local deposits is reinvested back into lending for local businesses.
Colonel's lasting legacy
Yorkshire Bank was founded in 1859 in Halifax, West Yorkshire, by Colonel Edward Akroyd as a philanthropic organisation aimed at providing a means of saving for the working classes.
During the late 19th century the bank became known as Yorkshire Penny Bank and by 1866 the number of branches reached their peak at 955.
In 1874, the first school banks were launched. Yorkshire Bank developed into one of the most profitable regional banks in the UK and, since 1990, it has been a member of the National Australia Bank, which has around 8m banking customers and more than 2.3m wealth management clients.
Today, Yorkshire Bank is the main English arm of the National Australia Bank group's UK operations. With its head office in Leeds, it has a network of more than 190 retail branches which stretches from Newcastle in the north to London in the south, Hereford in the west to Peterborough in the east.
Email to a friend
Print this page- Leeds lose Ward to Palace: Is there anyone they can afford now?
- Sheffield Wednesday leaving it late to hijack Leeds United over Ward
- As Snodgrass dithers over Leeds, Warnock throws a lifeline
- Ball is in Leeds United’s court over contract - Snodgrass
- Police turning blind eye to Asian voter fraud, says MP
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
