Pressure mounts on BBRS after report is branded a 'shambles' by MP - Greg Wright

In March, the chairman of BBRS told me it could resolve up to 6,000 cases brought by people who claim they’ve been mistreated by the banks over the next three years.

Lewis Shand Smith said he wanted to provide victims of banking misconduct with the chance to obtain justice and get on with their lives.

The BBRS has been established to provide an industry-funded independent service to resolve eligible historical and current disputes between SMEs and participating banks, with a view to delivering “fair, reasonable and independent” outcomes and without the need for litigation or external legal support.

However, the publication of the BBRS’ second quarterly insights report has failed to impress Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative MP for Thirsk & Malton who is co-chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Business Banking (APPG).

Mr Hollinrake has described the scheme as a shambles and a complete embarrassment.

He said the APPG had written to the trade body UK Finance and the seven member banks who designed the BBRS in 2018 to warn them that the eligibility criteria would exclude at least 85% of complainants. That has proven to be the case, according to Mr Hollinrake.But what does the data actually say? As of 31 August, the BBRS had handled 626 registered cases, with 338 cases currently going through the BBRS process.

Of the 626 cases, 255 “have completed their journey”, the statement said, which means they are closed. Of these, the vast majority (247 cases) were closed due to administrative factors.

At the end of August, only 33 cases were undergoing a formal eligibility assessment.

There have so far been just eight “determinations”, which had a range of outcomes, the report said.

A BBRS spokesman said: “We can’t report on the outcomes of these yet as they are still ‘open’ - subject to appeal - but one case has closed and its determination resulted in a financial award for the customer.”

The APPG is not the only body which believes this is not good enough.

The SME Alliance has withdrawn its support for the BBRS. The alliance said that, although it remained entirely supportive of the original concept behind the BBRS, “it can no longer support the scheme under its present terms which will not resolve the issues between SMEs and lenders or restore trust in our banking system”.

Dirk Paterson, Customer Director at the BBRS, said that it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions from the data because the service is so young.

He added: “ Our focus for the time being remains on raising awareness of our services. It’s vital that SMEs know we are here to help with current or historical business banking complaints.

“Business owners should know that we could award up to £350,000 for historical cases and £600,000 for contemporary cases, and more in suitable cases so they should check if they are eligible for the scheme.”

He added: "Since our inception in February we have had 626 registered cases (to 31 August 2021), of which 418 relate to the historical scheme. Of the 626 registered cases to date, we have closed eight cases due to them being ineligible and we are currently assessing a further 33 for their eligibility. We progress all cases as eligible until found otherwise, which means there is no reliable means of calculating the percentage of eligible to ineligible cases without risk of serious misrepresentation.”

A UK Finance spokesperson said:“The BBRS is delivering a fair and transparent dispute resolution service in line with the banking and finance industry’s commitment and with the involvement of external stakeholders including business representatives. With the creation of the BBRS, 99 per cent of small businesses now have access to this new service or the Financial Ombudsman Service.”

The fact remains that the BBRS has not got off to the start many of its supporters had hoped for.

One area of focus must be on the 247 cases which were closed due to factors such as the removal of duplicate cases, customer withdrawals or closure as a result of “very prolonged customer inaction”.

This could cover a range of reasons, such as the customer not responding despite prompts and chasing from the case handler or the customers themselves withdrawing the case.

Evidence received by bodies such as the APPG indicates that many small business owners who were bullied by the banks are still being denied justice.

Pressure will surely mount on the BBRS to deliver results. It can still play a key role in restoring trust in the banks.

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