Hot Business News Today

Hot Business News Today

Businesses could be facing fines for paying their suppliers late

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
The Small Business Commissioner may be able to issue fines to companies who pay their suppliers late.
This proposal is part of a new consultation looking to extend the Small Business Commissioner’s powers, which in the past have been criticised for falling short.
If granted, businesses will be made to be pay suppliers as a lump sum or as part of a payment plan, or the Small Business Commissioner could impose further penalties.
The government may also allow the Commissioner to force firms to share information during an investigation and launch probes into suspected bad payment practices, even if no one has reported them.
Payment problems have worsened since COVID-19 surged in the UK as businesses are desperate to hold on to cash.
Larger companies have been made to publish their data in the past but critics have slated it, saying that the figures are very difficult to understand.
The current Small Business Commissioner, Paul Scully, says that £23.4bn is owed to small and medium-sized businesses, with a cost of £4.4bn a year just to collect the money owed.
Click here to take part in the consultation. It’s open until December 24th 2020.
Good news for supermarket suppliers
UK supermarkets have made

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Hot Business News Today

HSBC will not accept any more Bounce Back Loan applications

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
HSBC has closed its doors on new Bounce Back Loan applications, saying it needs to process loan decisions already in hand.
Small businesses should have until the end of November to apply for a Bounce Back Loan.
To date, 1.3m companies have borrowed £38bn through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS).
>See also: Half of small businesses will never repay Bounce Back Loans, warn banks
HSBC halting Bounce Back Loan applications due to huge demand will anger small business customers hoping to sneak under the wire and take out the one-year interest-free loan before November 30.
The bank has approved 194,000 Bounce Back Loans so far worth £5.9bn and said it is approving a new loan every 20 seconds.
It will continue to process applications from existing HSBC customers as well as those made by non-customers before 9am on Wednesday, September 30.
HSBC will be closed to businesses opening new accounts until December 14.
>See also: Lloyds rapped for forcing Bounce Back Loans borrowers to open accounts
An HSBC UK spokesman told the Telegraph: “As one of the only banks that remained open to applications from all UK businesses since the scheme’s launch, we received a huge level of demand. With the

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Local lockdowns only make the problem of late payment worse

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Originally written by paulchristensen on Small Business
Yesterday the government announced a raft of new local lockdown restrictions in Liverpool. These follow on from local lockdowns across the north of the country, and likely precede harsher measures in the next week or so to be imposed on London.
It is clear that the government remains committed to keeping the “R” rate low, and prioritising protecting the NHS’ capacity over any resultant economic harms. That’s its trade off to make – but if it is a trade-off it insists on making, then small businesses need the government’s support more than ever.
These hyper-localised lockdowns have a huge impact on the small business community. For a large number of SMEs, their suppliers and customers are geographically proximate to their base of operations. This means that the viability of their business is tied to the health of the local economy, and, critically, to individuals and businesses producing and buying goods and services.
>See also: HSBC will not accept any more Bounce Back Loan applications
Think about a medium-sized grocer that supplies a number of large corporates in Liverpool. With profits already damaged by the downturn in orders from cruise lines and shipping companies, they are having to extend

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