Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions his Department has had with representatives of UK banks on the adequacy of the process for new small businesses to open business bank accounts.

Decisions about what products are offered to individual businesses remain commercial decisions for banks and building societies. It would be inappropriate for the Government to intervene in the processes that accompany such commercial decisions. However, the Government has always been clear - throughout the pandemic - that lenders should remain open to new customers where it is operationally feasible for them to do so.

As you may be aware, the largest UK banks [NatWest, Lloyds, Santander, Barclays, HSBC and Metro bank] wrote to the Treasury Select Committee (TSC) on 24^th May 2021 to publicly reaffirm their commitment to making bank account services available to small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).