companies house made easy

an end to fixed retirement age

Chancellor George Osborne has delivered the first Budget of the Conservative - Liberal Democrat coalition Government.

SMEs use multiple banks to avoid risk

Small businesses are moving away from using just one bank due to the credit crunch and the difficulties in accessing finance from high street banks.

emergency budget 2010

Chancellor George Osborne has delivered the first Budget of the Conservative - Liberal Democrat coalition Government.

view all news

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced that it will offer free banking for all start-up enterprises, and is also providing more generous terms for small business borrowing.

The bank is capping loan arrangement fees for SMEs at 1.5%, and overdraft charges for companies with a turnover of £25 million or less will also be capped at 1.5%.

RBS is 70% taxpayer-owned, and there has been anger that a bank that has been granted considerable amounts of public money to continue to keep businesses going through the recession, has not done enough to make credit available to SMEs.

RBS has also announced that it will be making £16 billion available for small businesses in search of finance, on top of the £28.5 billion lent to small companies between January and September this year.