RBS business customers to be paid in cash…. to leave the bank!

From today RBS business bank account holders are set to benefit from the £775 million bailout package following the award of funds on Friday to the nine challenger banks.

All nine banks – Arbuthnot Latham, Clydesdale & Yorkshire, Co-op Bank, Hampden & Co, Handelsbanken, Metro, Santander, Starling and TSB – are now offering cash incentives for RBS business customers to move their current account. The cash incentives are linked to the business turnover and range from £750 where turnover is under £15,000 up to £50,000 for those with a turnover in excess of £7.5 million.

More cash incentives are available to those businesses which have loans from RBS including contributions to valuation and legal fees which may be incurred in securing replacement loans.

More details of the Incentivised Switching Scheme are at  https://businessbankingswitch.rbs.co.uk/ and all RBS business current account holders should check to see how they might benefit from the Scheme.

The ISS is to encourage up to 200,000 RBS and Natwest business banking clients to switch their accounts to the challenger banks to ensure RBS meet the EU competition rules set down following the governments £45billion of RBS in 2008.

Alongside the cash incentives a Capability and Innovation Fund of £425 million is being handed out to the challenger banks in 2019 to encourage competition in the business banking industry.

On Friday, Metro Bank was notified as the biggest winner from the Fund with £120 million awarded towards expanding the number of branches, including reaching to the north of the UK, and offering more help to businesses. The new online banks, Starling and ClearBank, were also big winners from Friday’s first round of awards from the Fund with £100 million and £60 million respectively. The remaining £145 million from the fund will be awarded to later in 2019.