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It’s only a few weeks until the election and, whoever ends up forming the next government, most of us have hopes about what their policies will be. Small business owners are no exception, and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has released the results of a poll of its members. This suggests strongly what small business owners are looking for from the next government. Cracking Down on Late Payments Late pa

Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) has grown massively over recent years, with options to defer payment being offered for everything from clothing to groceries. Used responsibly, this can be an effective method of obtaining credit to give flexibility in budgeting. However, it can also lead consumers into spiralling debt. The government promised to introduce regulation for the sector, but recent reports suggest they’re consider

Business owners generally focus most on the sales that bring in the income, rather than on their suppliers. That’s understandable, but it can also be short sighted. Recent research by retail bank Aldermore has found that well over half of SMEs have suffered supply-chain problems in the past year — and this has cost a total of £1.9 billion. Why Are There Supply Chain Delays? Disruptions to supply chains have been goin

With many businesses devastated by the Covid pandemic, government measures like furlough and bounce-back loans were often lifesavers. However, when the time came to start paying back, not everyone repaying as easy as borrowing. Sometimes this was due to ongoing challenges, but some cases were self-inflicted. Bounce-Back Loan Fraud — Convictions Begin Because of the urgency of the situation, bounce-back loans were oft

Most people would agree that the financial sector has been in dire need of more targeted regulation — and, on the whole, those companies that have always operated ethically would also agree. In a sector tarnished by everything from the LIBOR scandal to consumer scams, tougher regulations should allow firms already meeting or exceeding those standards to get a head-start. What’s the Background to the Strategy? S

Meet the permanent non-borrowers. They’re the businesses that won’t be borrowing money from external sources, such as the high street banks, to expand. You might argue that it’s one of the longer-lasting effects of the global crash. Whatever the cause, a majority of small and medium-sized enterprises now meet the definition of permanent non-borrowers (PNBs), according to the recently published BDRC Continental SME Fi

Two big takeover deals involving well-known debt collection firms in the past month caught my eye. First, the company described by the Financial Times as Britain’s largest debt collector, Cabot Credit Management, which is controlled by American debt recovery group Encore and New York buyout house JC Flowers, bought its smaller UK rival Marlin Financial. Marlin and its £2 billion worth of loans were bought from privat

  Once upon a time your bank manager would, according to the television ad by the London clearing banks, pop out of a cupboard under the stairs to lend a financial helping hand. At the time the high street banks had a gentleman’s agreement not to advertise individually on TV, but wanted more people to open current accounts boasting such innovations  as cheque guarantee cards. Obtaining a bank loan depended then