SME financial redress scheme rolled out

The Business Banking Resolution Service (BBRS) will use alternative dispute resolution techniques to settle unresolved complaints from larger SMEs with seven participating banks, who make up the majority of the business banking market.

The move could benefit the 15,000 SMEs which currently operate in Yorkshire.

Richard Askew, FSB Yorkshire Policy Representative, said: “The struggles members in Yorkshire felt accessing finance prior to the pandemic have been amplified during it. Thus access to finance will be crucial to increase their confidence and investment ambitions, to enable the 15,000 SMEs in Yorkshire to drive a post pandemic economic recovery that will be so needed.”

The service, which was due to begin last autumn, has been two years in the making and has been set up on a voluntary basis with small business groups and banks working together.

It began a pilot exercise with approximately 40 complainants in 2019.

It is hoped that the BBRS will give SMEs added confidence to take out loans and other business banking products and services knowing that, if something goes wrong, they have a route to independent resolution.

An improved climate for investment will be much-needed as the economy seeks to recover.

The BBRS will work to settle unresolved complaints from customers of the financial institutions who have signed up.

The banks are: Barclays Bank plc and Barclays Bank UK plc; Danske Bank; HSBC UK Bank plc; Lloyds Banking Group (Lloyds Bank plc and Bank of Scotland plc); NatWest Group (including The Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, National Westminster Bank plc, Coutts & Company and Ulster Bank Limited (Northern Ireland)); Santander UK plc; and Virgin Money (including Clydesdale Bank plc and Yorkshire Bank).

It is hoped that more banks will join in future.

The BBRS offers an alternative to litigation, removing the cost and stress of going to court.

Its decision-making is led by Alexandra Marks CBE, chief adjudicator and a deputy High Court judge.

The BBRS’ independent chairman, Lewis Shand Smith, said: “As UK businesses continue to adapt to the current challenges, the BBRS is poised to play its part in supporting a recovering business community.”

He added: “It has never been more important for businesses to get fair treatment from their banks, and I am delighted that from today, thousands of SMEs across Yorkshire and The Humber could have access to this vital scheme ensuring just that.

“These are some of Yorkshire’s most important businesses, and it is vital that their relationships with their banks continue to strengthen throughout this difficult period, so that SMEs across the region feel confident in borrowing in the future”

Beckie Hart, regional director, Yorkshire and the Humber, CBI, said: “The BBRS is a solution which will help deal with the legacy of the past but is also capable of facing the challenges of tomorrow, providing swift, fair and reasonable adjudications to deal with complex disputes.”

Read: The bank bosses in line for bonuses against a backdrop of economic carnage

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James Mitchinson