Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
The chair of the Treasury Select Committee, Mel Stride MP, has written to six high street banks to respond to difficulties faced by SMEs opening new business current accounts.
The high street banks are Natwest, HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, Metro Bank and Santander.
Questions include:
Whether their criteria for opening business accounts has changed since the start of the pandemic
Whether waiting times have increased
How customer complaints have been handled
Commenting on the correspondence, Mr Stride said:
“As the recovery from the pandemic gets underway, many SMEs will continue to need vital support from financial institutions. It’s critical that these institutions are adapting to the requirements of SMEs as the economy starts to pick up. The Committee wants to know more about the state of the business current account market, and whether action needs to be taken to mitigate the difficulties faced by SMEs.”
Banks have been given a month to respond to Stride’s letter.
Responding to the news, Rich Wagner, CEO and founder of Cashplus Bank, said:
“For many years viable UK small businesses have been let down and made to jump through hoops by dominant high street banks that are only really interested in serving larger, established businesses. Nonetheless, it is