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316 – RBS actively looking for small firms…

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14 October 2009

…so why did it bail out of brokers?

THIS morning one of the BBC’s headlines caught my eye in the Business section: ‘RBS seeks to attract small firms‘.

Excuse me, isn’t this the same company that owns Lombard, which decided to ditch its network of car leasing brokers (see blog Lombard ditches car leasing brokers)?

According to the BBC story, RBS is under pressure to hit Treasury lending targets. So it’s put some of its most experienced bankers on a hotline to offer advice for access to loans.

Which is exactly what one car leasing broker told me is at the heart of the broker offering – the ability to reach out to thousands of small businesses. It’s a way of outsourcing a bank’s business, and stops the need to have an army of salesmen out on the road – which cost more, and will have less reach. Or, in this case, highly experienced and well-remunerated bankers sitting on the end of a phone.

It makes little sense. And concerns me that the big high street banks are still suspect in their decision-making.

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Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton is an award-winning journalist and the founder of Business Car Manager (now renamed Business Motoring). Ralph writes extensively about the car and van leasing industry as well as wider fleet and company car issues. A former editor of What Car?, Ralph is a vastly experienced writer and editor and has been writing about the automotive sector for over 35 years.

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