Bank referral scheme
The UK government-mandated bank referral scheme (Designated Platforms) was created by the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015[1] to allow the UK government to track businesses and their requests for business finance.[2] The scheme was launched in November 2016 after more than two years of deliberation.[3]
Businesses who have been unsuccessful in a credit application process with a bank will be asked for their permission to have their financial information passed to designated finance platforms, who can contact the business in a regulated time-frame.
The three designated finance platforms selected are Funding Options, Funding Xchange and Alternative Business Funding.[4] Alternative Business Funding was set up by Adam Tavener and is part of The Clifton Group based in Bristol.[citation needed]
The Sunday Times reported in March 2017 that since the launch, the scheme has seen low numbers of referrals. Of the businesses which have been declined by the high street banks, less than 24 percent have been referred to the Designated Platforms.[5]
How the Referral Scheme works
The bank referral scheme imposes a statutory duty on selected UK high street banks to pass on businesses who have been unsuccessful in applying for finance to the three designated alternative finance platforms, who will then email or phone the businesses to offer their service. If a business chooses to interact with any of the finance platforms they fill in a few questions and the finance platform runs the data against their panel of finance providers to see if there are any potential matches. If there are matches the business can then choose whether to make contact with a finance provider and then and only then is their data shared with that finance provider.[6] Funding available through the bank referral scheme covers term lending, receivables finance, asset finance, commercial property finance and online lenders, as well as government-backed and not-for-profit lenders. None of the three finance platforms support equity finance.[7]
For the referral scheme to perform as envisaged by the UK Government, the businesses affected must give formal permission to the bank to pass on their information to platforms. Business owners have expressed concern and confusion as to how the referral scheme will perform in practice.[8]
Concerns
Concerns have centred around three themes:
1) the potentially high interest rates that are charged by some alternative finance providers;
2) how confidential information will be treated by the designated platforms who are small start-up businesses; and
3) the possibility of being contacted by a number of unknown companies who have had access to confidential business and financial information.
In turn it should be noted that, the designated platforms’ panel of lenders include finance providers ranging from the big banks, alternative finance providers - such asset finance providers- and not-for-profit lenders. They are also regulated by the FCA and have to follow all the same rules with regards data protection as the big banks and cannot pass on a businesses information to other companies, including finance providers, without the permission of the business.
In May 2019 Christoph Rieche, CEO alternative lender Iwoca, wrote an open letter to the Chancellor Philip Hammond[9] saying they had “failed to deliver any meaningful impact”[10]. According to Iwoca’s research, there are some 300,000 businesses who say they’re looking to apply for a collective £1bn in finance, but “were somehow discouraged to submit a complete application”[11].
Background
The idea of the bank referral scheme was advocated by the Liberal Democrats under Nick Clegg with the former Liberal Democrat Business Secretary, Sir Vince Cable hinting at it in March 2014.[12] The then Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne announced in August 2014[13] the scheme; after a five-month industry consultation selected British Business Bank (the UK's state development bank) to run the assessment process to recommend three designated finance platforms on behalf of HM Treasury.[14]
The scheme which was included in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 [1] was given Royal Assent in March 2015. The implementation of the scheme was slowed down by a multitude of logistical problems such as how and when a bank should refer a business to the alternative finance sector.
A year after the announcement of the scheme, there was no progress and the scheme seemed to have been forgotten.[15]
The bank referral scheme was launched on 1 November 2016[4] after a further two-month delay.[16]
References
- ^ a b Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 2015 c. 26PART 1Financial information about businessesSection 5
- ^ "Government Responses Platforms for rejected SME finance" (PDF).
- ^ "Bank referral scheme goes live - AltFi News". AltFi. Retrieved 2016-11-02.
- ^ a b "New matchmaking service for small businesses looking for finance".
- ^ "Bank said no, but I didn't lose my sense of hummus". Retrieved 2017-03-06.
- ^ "Banks to be forced to increase competition in SME lending". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
- ^ "The new bank referral scheme: an insider's view".
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:1
was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Rieche, Christoph. "Iwoca Open Later to Chancellor". Iwoca.
- ^ Smith, Hannah (23 May 2019). "Iwoca slams government's 'failing' bank referral scheme". Peer 2 Peer Finance News. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
- ^ Smith, Oliver (23 May 2019). "Iwoca calls on Chancellor Philip Hammond to fix "failing" Bank Referral Scheme". Altfi. Iwoca calls on Chancellor Philip Hammond to fix “failing” Bank Referral Scheme. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
- ^ "AltFi Europe Summit 2014".
- ^ "Referral System Confirmed as Government Plans for UK to Rule the World of Fintech".
- ^ "British Business Bank: Finance Platforms".
- ^ "Referrals for bank-jilted small firms still conspicuously absent". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-03-06.
- ^ "Bank referral scheme to go live early next quarter - AltFi News". AltFi. Retrieved 2016-11-16.