As you may be aware, RBS have now started the process of asking their business and commercial customers with a turnover up to £25m to switch their banking to another bank. This is something that RBS have agreed to do as part of the financial support that they received from the UK Government and has been approved by the European Commission.
The RBS have put aside £275m to be paid as incentives when a business transfers to one of the qualifying challenger banks (including Yorkshire Bank, Santander, TSB, Metro, Handelsbanken). Whilst the dowry payment (incentive) is initially to be paid to the receiving bank, all of the banks have confirmed that they will be passing this benefit onto the customer. The dowry to be paid is based on a business turnover (payment from £750 to £50,000 with an initial dowry for any term lending that is also transferred). Of course any lending is subject to bank credit approval, but any cost of transferring (security, valuations etc) up to £10,000 are also covered by the scheme.
This is a unique situation and there will no doubt be a number of things that you will want to consider before deciding whether you will switch banks, however we are keen to support you through this process. If you have any questions so please contact a member of our healthcare team or look at the switching website business banking https://businessbankingswitch.rbs.co.uk/ to find out how you may be able to benefit from this scheme.
