Boost for small businesses as free and independent service for unresolved bank complaints goes live

Posted on26 February 2021

Business banks sign up to innovative scheme with a focus on historical cases alongside contemporary complaints.

Small businesses will, from today, be able to use a new, free and independent service to help them resolve disputes with their banks, in a boost for SMEs struggling in the current crisis.

The Business Banking Resolution Service (BBRS) will use alternative dispute resolution techniques to settle unresolved complaints from larger SMEs with seven participating banks, who make up the majority of the business banking market.

It is hoped that the BBRS will give SMEs added confidence to take out loans and other business banking products and services knowing that, if something goes wrong, they have a route to independent resolution. An improved climate for investment will be much-needed as the economy seeks to recover.

The service has been two years in the making and has been set up on a voluntary basis with small business groups and banks working together. The setting up of the BBRS comes after a sustained campaign by SMEs, who have argued for a wider means of resolving disputes.

The BBRS will work to settle unresolved complaints from customers of the financial institutions who have signed up. The banks are: Barclays Bank plc and Barclays Bank UK plc; Danske Bank; HSBC UK Bank plc; Lloyds Banking Group (Lloyds Bank plc and Bank of Scotland plc); NatWest Group (including The Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, National Westminster Bank plc, Coutts & Company and Ulster Bank Limited (Northern Ireland)); Santander UK plc; and Virgin Money (including Clydesdale Bank plc and Yorkshire Bank).

It is hoped that more banks will join in future.

Read more about the service Business Banking Resolution Service goes live - 15.2.21

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