New RBS-backed bank launches and targets small businesses
Small companies struggling to get finance from the UK's biggest banks are being targeted by a new bank backed by Royal Bank of Scotland.
Shawbrook, which says it will loan £250m to small-and-medium sized businesses in 2012, is 100% owned by RBS Equity Finance, an independent arm of the part-nationalised bank.
The new body has been formed by the merger of three lenders - Whiteaway Laidlaw Bank, Link Loans and the lending platform of Commercial First.
Despite being owned by RBS, the bosses of Shawbook insist they agree with the government's criticism of the how the big four - Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and RBS - have dealt with small businesses during the economic crisis.
Research carried out by Shawbrook, whose chairman is former RBS chief executive Sir George Matthewson, revealed that 89% of SMEs believe banks fail to use common sense when they make decisions about business loan applications.
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