Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has made an assessment of trends in the level of tiered lending rate structures in SME finance products offered by UK-regulated banks since 2022.

Tiered interest rates relate to retail deposits and personal loans, not commercial finance.

Bank of England data shows that interest rates on lending by banks to UK SMEs are as follows:

In March 2025, effective interest rates for new SME loans were 6.75%

In March 2024, effective interest rates for new SME loans were 7.49%

In March 2023, effective interest rates for new SME loans were 6.36%

In March 2022, effective interest rates for new SME loans were 3.49%

Source: Bank of England