News Centre

Representatives of ten so-called ‘challenger’ banks have met with Charles Roxburgh, the Treasury’s director of financial services. The meeting is the first of a new quarterly series of meetings and a number of issues, including the continuation of the Funding for Lending scheme, capital requirements and banking surcharges are all on the agenda.

The recent flooding events in Cumbria and elsewhere have caused a lot of personal hardship. TV screens were filled with images of families and individuals hit hard by damage to property and personal belongings, but many small businesses have felt the impact too.

The incomes of smaller UK businesses have risen steeply since 2010 but the growth rate has slowed this year, a new report shows.

A campaign group is calling for lenders to publish APRs in connection with their business loans. The Campaign for Regulation of Asset Based Finance has written to a number of major banks and is campaigning for APRs to be mandatory. A spokesman said that this would bring much needed clarity to the true price of asset-based finance and help clients compare the costs of different financial products.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has launched a new service aimed at helping small business owners to identify suitable and cost-effective energy tariffs for their businesses.