Both Barclays Bank and TSB are to offer SME customers assurances and further information in light of Britain’s looming departure from the European Union.
Barclays will provide over 100 ‘Brexit clinics’ in March, seeking to inform SME customers on issues such as cashflow, exporting goods, and supply chain management.
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TSB has launched an SME Lending Pledge, six commitments intended to help small business borrowers facing financial difficulty. The commitments include not raising loan margins on existing facilities if a business enters into financial difficulty, and not defaulting a business if it is up-to-date on its loan payments, but a valuation change impacts a covenant.
Richard Davies, TSB’s SME banking director, said: “Small businesses need firm commitments to ensure they get fair treatment when they need it most. That is why we are offering a new Lending Pledge. The issues of the last decade have shown there is a need for greater protections for business borrowers, and we hope that the rest of the business banking industry will follow suit.”
Barclays have announced that it will invite about 5,000 business customers to attend its events in the next few weeks.
Jes Staley, chief executive of Barclays Group, said: “At a time of general uncertainty, Barclays intends to play our part in supporting the UK economy, and in particular providing help to prepare and cope with whatever Brexit will bring, to the one million UK SMEs that we serve up and down the country. Barclays is fully prepared for any Brexit scenario, and we stand ready to help our clients through this period too.”
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By GlobalDataThe Barclays clinics will provide sector specific advice, particularly for agriculture, construction, hospitality, manufacturing and healthcare, while the bank also plans to host a series of webinars.
A survey from Independent Growth Finance (IGF) has shown 90% of UK SMEs expressing concern over the potential effects of Britain’s departure from the European Union.
