The Bank of England latest statistics showed a £200 million decrease in loans to smaller businesses during July. Mike Cherry, Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) National Chairman, said “Small businesses appetite for new finance is waning against a backdrop of unprecedented uncertainty, anaemic domestic growth and inflationary pressure weighing on consumer demand. Investment intentions are not where they should be…
Read more
European conference, LendIt Europe has announced a unique partnership with SeedInvest, a leading equity crowdfunding platform, to enable delegate investment live from the conference floor at this year’s event. The live fundraising feature, which will be an industry first in Europe, will allow eight of the PitchIt finalists to raise money immediately at the event…
Read moreThe Government has announced changes to corporate governance. Commenting on the announcement Mike Cherry, the Federation of Small Businesses National Chairman, said: “Poor payments culture in the UK has grown into an epidemic, with research showing that a third of payments to small businesses are late. These practices are immoral, with the largest businesses using their dominant position to…
Read more
Redwood Bank, a new business bank for SMEs, has announced that just over four months after securing its initial banking licence, it has completed its “mobilisation” phase and has now opened for business, offering secured SME mortgages for business owners, as well as for experienced commercial and residential property investors. It has also launched a…
Read more
Late payments remain a persistent issue globally nearly a decade past the 2008 crisis, but the long-term outlook is optimistic. A 3% improvement in the cash-to-cash cycle of UK companies has released £8.8bn previously tied up in working capital, according to Grant Thornton’s latest UK Working Capital Survey. Individual businesses, not just the economy benefit…
Read moreA growing number of micro, small and medium-sized businesses know they can shop around for a better water deal, but more than half are still unaware of the new market in England according to the first in a series of online surveys by the Consumer Council for Water (CCWater) aimed at tracking awareness of the…
Read more
Responding to the Government release of its plans for a shared approach to data protection, Mike Cherry, National Chairman at the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), said “Research from FSB shows that data protection is definitely on the minds of small business owners, with almost 60 per cent of members ranking data protection laws as a significant…
Read more
The government has published its position paper on post-Brexit civil judicial cooperation which states that the government will seek a post-Brexit agreement which “reflects closely the substantive principles of cooperation under the current EU framework. Commenting on the paper Adrian Hyde, President of insolvency and restructuring trade body R3, said “The UK’s insolvency and restructuring profession…
Read more
The Association of Short Term Lenders (ASTL) has today announced its new executive committee for the upcoming year. The new board will take effect as of the 1st September 2017. The board will continue to comprise seven directors who will act as a guiding influence, while providing direction and decision making to the Association. Benson Hersch,…
Read more
Small businesses are still fighting an uphill battle to secure public sector contracts, according to the latest report from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), which means the Government’s new targets for SME public procurement are unlikely to be met. FSB is calling on Government and the public sector to step up efforts to remove…
Read more
Fraud prevention service, Cifas has released new figures showing that identity fraud has continued to rise at record levels in the first six months of 2017. A record 89,000 identity frauds were recorded, up 5% from last year. Representing over half of all fraud recorded by the UK’s not-for-profit fraud data sharing organisation, 83% of…
Read more
ABN AMRO Commercial Finance (ACF) has appointed Andrew Johnston as UK Head of Sales SME. Johnston will lead a team of business development managers located across England and Wales focused on supporting SMEs with funding requirements up to £10m. With over 26 years’ experience in financial services, Andrew joins ACF from the Royal Bank of…
Read moreSiemens Financial Services (SFS) has appointed Julian Hobbs as Chief Executive Officer of the Commercial Finance division. Hobbs joined the SFS Commercial Finance business in December 2010, following previous sales and risk roles in the asset and receivables financing industries, more latterly as Managing Director of Deutsche Leasing’s operations in the United Kingdom and Ireland.…
Read more