Small Businesses: Finance

(asked on 8th July 2019) - View Source
Questioner
Jim McMahon Portrait
Jim McMahon
(Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to increase protection for small businesses taking out finance.

Answered by
John Glen Portrait
John Glen
Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This question was answered on 11th July 2019

On 1 April 2019 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) widened eligibility to take a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) to include ‘small businesses’ who have:

    1. an annual turnover of less than £6.5m; and

    2. an annual balance sheet total of less than £5m; or

    3. fewer than 50 employees.

      ‘Micro-enterprises’ were already eligible, and over 99% of businesses are now within the remit of the FOS. The FCA also increased the maximum FOS award limit to £350,000.

      The banking industry have also committed to establishing a new Dispute Resolution Service to resolve both future complaints from businesses with a turnover between £6.5m and £10m, and unresolved historic complaints.

Reticulating Splines