About us
Better Business Finance provides impartial information and support to business customers looking to raise finance.
It is supported by the British Bankers’ Association and the banks involved are Barclays, HSBC, RBS, Lloyds and Santander.
It has been created to bring to life the recommendations of the Business Finance Taskforce.
About the Business Finance Taskforce
A strong and growing business sector is crucial to economic recovery, to job creation and to the UK’s future prosperity. This requires viable businesses to have access to secure and sustainable funding to help you set up and expand.
Since the onset of the financial crisis, the issue of the availability of bank finance for small businesses has become a matter of both importance and controversy. On the one hand, there has been much comment that the banks are not lending enough; that the lending is conducted at rates that are too high and that the banks are turning down loan requests for viable businesses. At the same time, banks have seen a steady decline in the demand for loans and a steep increase in the cost of wholesale funding, upon which much of their lending depends.
In response, the UK’s six largest banks (Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS, Santander and Standard Chartered) decided to examine how they could help the economy return to sustainable growth by supporting businesses. The Business Finance Taskforce was created to analyse the facts, create momentum and ensure money is lent prudently and fairly to support the economic recovery without initiating another credit surge.
In its final report in October 2010, the Business Finance Taskforce committed to 17 recommendations intended to add further momentum to existing initiatives to improve banks’ relationships with business, ensure better access to finance and promote understanding of the needs of business customers.
Among the Taskforce’s recommendations was the creation of a one-stop-shop website for businesses in which they could get impartial information about how to secure finance and the best options for their business. BetterBusinessFinance.co.uk is our response to this recommendation and will also be an online hub for the other resources being created as the Taskforce recommendations are taken forward, including the launch of a new appeals process for businesses who are dissatisfied with their lending decision, a series of regional events and, later in the year, a nationwide Business Mentoring scheme.
