Five UK banks to mentor SMEs

The UK's five biggest banks are to mentor small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the BBC has reported.

Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander are recruiting current and retired employees to act as volunteers for the mentoring scheme, which will offer firms more support on issues such as finance, marketing and HR.

The scheme was set up by the business finance taskforce, which was set up last summer by major UK lenders.

Under the Project Merlin deal with the government, the banks had agreed to lend £76bn to SMEs in 2011.

Stephen Pegg, director at Lloyds Banking Group, told the BBC: "Having a bit of financial input, someone to ask the right questions... helps you put together better lending propositions so actually that finance can get out there and businesses can be encouraged to have the confidence to invest and the contacts to look at a wider range of finance."

Further information:
BBC