£243m up for grabs for Yorkshire’s SMEs
YORKSHIRE’S SMEs have the chance to tap into a further £234m of funding from RBS and Natwest, as the bank pledges to drive growth in the region.
More than 3,000 Yorkshire SMEs have benefited from £480m made available through NatWest and RBS’s Funding for Lending scheme (FLS) already, saving around £10.5m.
The Bank of England revealed that Royal Bank of Scotland (including NatWest) has increased net lending through the Funding for Lending scheme (FLS) by £245m in the last quarter.
Recent figures show that demand for lending is improving across the UK, with SME loan and overdraft applications up 6% quarter on quarter, according to the bank.
NatWest said it is offering to lend its Yorkshire SME customers a total of £234m more in a bid to drive growth in the region.
The bank made available an initial £4bn to proactively offer to customers across the UK and has now increased the pot to £10bn allowing its relationship managers to contact thousands more SMEs in the coming months.
Ian Cowie, chief executive of business and commercial banking for NatWest and RBS, said: “Up until now we have lent £480m to businesses in Yorkshire through the Funding for Lending scheme. We are the UK’s biggest lender to SMEs and that is great news but we want to do more.
“That is why we are now proactively speaking to customers to let them know how much we could lend to them if they want to invest. That presents opportunities for SMEs and will benefit the local economy here in Yorkshire.
“We want to support even more businesses, that is why we commissioned the lending review, and why we will act on its findings. We want to make it simpler for customers to work with us, boost lending to SMEs and drive growth in the UK economy.”
