Financial Times: RBS sets aside £2bn to help small businesses deal with Brexit

23 October 2018

Royal Bank of Scotland has set aside £2bn in funding to help small businesses deal with Brexit as uncertainty around the terms of the UK’s departure creates concerns about supply chains and financial risks for many businesses.

RBS, the country’s largest business bank, said the money would be used to provide services such as trade finance, term finance and increased liquidity for small and medium-sized enterprises with a reliance on EU labour markets or exposure to foreign exchange movements.

Alison Rose, chief executive of RBS commercial and private banking, said Brexit “will require businesses to think strategically and tactically about how to navigate what is still an uncertain period ahead”.

The bank said it would contact about 2,000 existing RBS and NatWest customers that it thinks would benefit from the services.

British banks have been making practical preparations such as setting up new continental European subsidiaries or transferring operations since shortly after the Brexit vote, but the announcement on Tuesday highlights how they are increasingly paying attention to the domestic impact the exit could have on their customers. [...]

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