 SME Alliance rejects disappointing and self-serving Walker report. SME Alliance, which supports business people in their disputes with banks, has rejected the main conclusions of the report by Simon Walker on behalf of the finance industry’s trade body into ways SMEs can challenge banks without going to court. Mr Walker’s conclusions – which include strengthening the role of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and a voluntary ombudsman service for larger businesses – fall well short of the demands by the SME Alliance, leading MPs and other interested parties for an independent tribunal to deal with disputes between businesses and their banks. Said Nikki Tuner, director of SME Alliance: “This report is off the mark and out of sync with what businesses want and need. Nothing short of a robust process will convince the millions of ordinary business people they are protected by the law. The SME sector has been ravaged by banks for years and neither the Financial Conduct Authority (or its predecessor body) nor the FOS have done much to stop this. The trust has gone, as has access to justice. A tribunal would re-establish this.” The report was commission by UK Finance, the representative body for the finance industry in the UK, including all the banks which may be in dispute with companies they have financed. SME Alliance also questions the voracity of the information referenced by Mr Walker and his team, in particular regarding how many victims of the HBOS Reading fraud were described as businesses that “were in trouble before they reached the bank.” It has been established, and accepted by Lloyds Banking Group which now owns HBOS, that the vast majority of the problems that harmed businesses were caused by HBOS and consultants working with it. Said Nikki Turner: “To make such a fundamental error brings into question the integrity and credibility of this review.” SME Alliance was formed in September 2014 to support SMEs “battling against fraud, corruption and misconduct in the financial sector” and to lobby for the fair treatment of businesses by their banks and advisors.
3 Comments
 SME Alliance welcomes positive meeting with Barclays SME Alliance, which supports business people in their disputes with banks, has welcomed the positive approach shown by Barclays in the first of its meetings with high street banks. The Chairman and the CEO of SME Alliance met with Ian Rand, CEO of Business Banking Barclays, this week. The meeting was to not only open a channel of direct communication for legacy issues of SME Alliance members but also create a dialogue for future SME lending. Barclays was the first bank to accept the invitation from SME Alliance for quarterly meetings to discuss on going issues and better communication between banks and SMEs. Nikki Turner, speaking for SME Alliance said, “Both Nick Gould and I considered yesterday's meeting with Ian Rand and members of his team, to be extremely positive. This was an opportunity to break the ‘them and us’ silos that have existed for so long now between lenders and business clients. How can the SME sector ever regain any trust in the financial sector if we can't talk to decision makers, make our points and try to find consensually acceptable outcomes? And even where we are not in complete agreement - which, we don't pretend is likely - direct communication has to be a better option than costly litigation which many SME owners cannot afford and which only benefits the legal profession. A dialogue is now open between SME Alliance and Barclays and we are keen to progress this for our members both in terms of legacy issues and future funding." The next bank to meet SME Alliance is TSB, later this month. Further meetings are being organised with other high street banks. Nick Gould, Chairman of SME Alliance said, "We have always wanted to break down silos, we want to talk and we want to help open doors. After Brexit it will be extremely important that the SME sector can function to its maximum capacity. That won't happen if SMEs cannot trust banks - too many don't and with good reason. We are determined to help turn this situation around and we would like to thank Barclays for helping us to get off to a good start." SME Alliance was formed in September 2014 to support SMEs “battling against fraud, corruption and misconduct in the financial sector” and to lobby for the fair treatment of businesses by their banks and advisors. Dear Members,
As you may know our Chairman, Nick Gould, is involved with the APPG on Fair Business Banking's working group looking into Banking Contracts. Here is a message for our members.... “At a recent meeting of an APPG working group on banking docs I was asked to find examples in the docs people entered into with lending banks , of unfair or incomprehensible or unreasonable or unacceptable, clauses. I am sure you will have quillions of examples. If anyone is able to help and could send me some examples by 10th October I will pass them over. Thanks very much Nick “ Please send any examples to [email protected] |
Archives
November 2021
|
RSS Feed