Aldermore lift the lid for SMEs across the United Kingdom

• Posted: 24 October 2012
• In: General News
• Tags: Supporting UK Business, Lending, Personal Savings, Business Savings

Since its first day in business in 2009, Aldermore Bank has listened. On Friday, we celebrated £1billion lending to SMEs; a landmark achievement we've accomplished by listening to what our customers have to say and acting on their feedback. As an organisation, we evolve our products and services to meet the needs of businesses across the United Kingdom. We're a bank that listens and acts for the best interest of businesses.

On Friday, we listened to Business Minister Michael Fallow as he spoke at The Telegraph Festival of Business, passionately arguing the case for SMEs to access finance; that a national bank would not be necessary if high street banks began listening to what their customers wanted.   

And it was a sentiment echoed by the dozens of SME owners we spoke to during the conference. 42 per cent of those attendees in Manchester felt that the business relationship with their bank had deteriorated over the past 12 months, while over 65 per cent of those present were turned down for finance during 2012. Here are just some of the comments we collected from guests and speakers during the event:

Morgan Davies, CEO of @barburtweeto: "Process of talking to banks was painful. Many of our applications for finance were rejected." #fob

— Aldermore Bank (@AldermoreBank) October 19, 2012

Morgan Davies from @barburtweeto: "I had a problem spending so much time on the bank application process (when applying for funding)" #fob

— Aldermore Bank (@AldermoreBank) October 19, 2012

Sir Leahy: There is a problem with banking. Banks have turned away from business. We need them to perform role of providing capital. #fob

— Aldermore Bank (@AldermoreBank) October 19, 2012

At Aldermore, we pride ourselves in being a different sort of bank; an organisation that champions small businesses across the UK, providing support and products to companies throughout Britain. We listen to our customers and we take the time to get to know their business. And it is in this spirit that we've decided to 'lift the lid'; to ask SMEs what they want from their relationship with their bank.

SMEs are the lifeblood of the UK economy and, for too long, they have been ignored by the traditional banking system. Over the course of 2012, we asked businesses across the United Kingdom to tell us about themselves, their relationship with their bank, as well as about their saving habits and their sentiment towards the state of the economy. We 'lifted the lid' on issues affecting SMEs across Britain.

We'll be revealing more about our 'lift the lid' research in due course. In the meantime, Simon Healy, Managing Director of Savings at Aldermore, shares his thoughts on the research and reveals what we hope to accomplish with this feedback from the SME community.