Nationwide looking to expand SME business with RBS funds
(28 March 2018 – UK) The UK’s biggest building society, Nationwide, has joined the race to share £425m of funds from RBS designed to boost competition in UK business banking.
The Royal Bank of Scotland, as a condition of its rescue during the financial crises, is forced to provide the £425m to rivals so they can improve their business banking services. A further £350m is to encourage customers to switch banks.
Recent scandals involving major banks such as Lloyds and RBS have put the need to improve SME business banking under a spotlight.
Nationwide already provides business savings accounts and has previously considered expanding in the small business banking market but judged the costs of entry as too high. As Nationwide does not provide business current accounts it would only be eligible to apply for funding from the second tier however Joe Garner, Nationwide CEO said it would still be “enough to get us over the threshold” to make expansion viable.
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