Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Business Banking Resolution Service (BBRS), the voluntary ombudsman set up to handle any banking dispute between small businesses and high-street banks, has cost £23m to establish.
Seven high-street banks have split the £23m setting-up cost of the banking dispute service between them, so no taxpayer money was involved.
But BBRS has yet to pay out damages to any small business since its launch was delayed from November until mid-February.
>See also: Business Banking Resolution Service opens doors in November
The BBRS said that it hopes to settle its first disputes between wronged small business borrowers and banks by the summer.
About 500 disputes were pre-registered with the BBRS before its mid-February launch, and it has 160 “live” cases going through at the moment, plus another 48 new cases register since February 14.
The BBRS was set up after thousands of companies were damaged by banking scandals. It gives small businesses an independent view on banking disputes. It is funded by seven banks but is independent of them.
Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake, co-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on fair business banking, described the setting-up costs to The Times as “eye-watering”.
For example, £9.2m was spent on “third-party delivery costs” to get