January 20th, 2017.



Nearly half (47 per cent) of small and medium-sized business (SME) owners claim the business advice they received in the last year from their mainstream bank had a negative impact on their business operations and one in six (16 per cent) of these suggest their business is now in a worse position as a result.

This is according to a new study by Amicus Commercial Finance, the specialist lender of flexible working capital to SMEs, which also highlights that more than half (52 per cent) of SME owners ignored advice they received from their mainstream bank over the last 12 months.

The research shows that four in ten (40 per cent) of SME owners do not rate the level of service they receive from their mainstream bank as ‘good’.

SME owners in the West Midlands (53 per cent) and North West (53 per cent) are the most disappointed in the level of service while half (50 per cent) of SME owners in the IT and communications industry do not rate the service as ‘good’.

The survey shows that, of those who have used the bank to help them support their business with working capital or overdraft facilities, nearly a third (30 per cent) wouldn’t describe the bank as ‘helpful’ and nearly half (46 per cent) of SME owners suggest they wouldn’t describe them as ‘flexible’.


For the full story at smallbusiness.co.uk CLICK HERE