Small Businesses: Finance
(asked on 10th December 2025) - View Source
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how she will notify SMEs that their bank is a designated bank under any scheme set up to ensure customers that are rejected for finance approval can be matched with alternatives who will offer support.
The Bank Referral Scheme is an initiative dating back to 2014, which requires major lenders (designated banks) to refer SME customers that they reject for finance, with the SMEs’ permission, to finance platforms that can match the SME with alternative finance providers, in order to improve access to finance.
In the interests of public transparency, the Treasury is required under the law to publish a list of banks designated under the Scheme. The list of currently designated banks can be found at:
Under the existing regulations, SMEs also learn about their bank’s involvement in the Scheme as the law requires the bank to ask the SME whether they agree to their information being provided to finance platforms under the Scheme, in order to try and match the SME with alternative finance.
On 27th October, the Government launched a consultation and call for evidence on the Bank Referral Scheme, inviting views on a range of issues and proposals aimed at better facilitating SME access to finance through the Scheme, including on bank designations and improving awareness of the Scheme.
The consultation sets out that, at a minimum, the Government intends to improve its own information resources on the Scheme. It also explains that the Government is considering whether it would be beneficial for more information on the Scheme to be made readily available to SMEs earlier, when they are considering external finance, regardless of whether they have already applied and been rejected. The consultation is due to close on 22 December.
The Government will set out its position on any changes to the Scheme in due course.