Banks Under scrutiny
The saga prompted the Treasury Committee to seek reassurances from six major banks – NatWest, Lloyds, HSBC, Barclays, Metro Bank and Santander – that they were committed to serving small businesses as the country emerged from lockdowns. In their replies, a number of banks said they had seen a rise in complaints, but against a background of rising demand and their own staffing pressures owing to Covid. “It is clear that delivering on bounce back loans at short notice rapidly increased the demand for business bank accounts at the same time as banks faced considerable additional work in delivering this extra support,” said Mr Stride. “It is good to hear from these banks that the availability of business bank accounts is now returning to pre-pandemic levels.” He said the committee would “keep a close eye” on the issue and on the commitment from banks to support small businesses as the UK started to move out of the pandemic.