A little know scheme was launched in February to incentivise business customers of RBS and National Westminster banks to switch to another bank – and pay them for doing so.
If your business bank account is with one of these banks you could get a cash payment for switching.
I had to check that it wasn’t 1st April when I heard about this but yes, it’s a genuine scheme.
After the government bailed out RBS in 2008, the plan initially was for RBS to divest part of its business into Williams & Glyn, a revival of an old RBS subsidiary to increase competition in UK business banking and reduce their market share. Williams & Glyn would comprise 314 branches
and take on 250,000 small business customers, 1,200 medium business customers and 1.8 million personal banking customers.
But over time, this plan gave way to two alternative initiatives. RBS remained intact, but it would put £425m towards a capability and innovation fund that would help newer, smaller ‘challenger banks’ and fintech companies.
The bank would also front £350m for what was called the Business Banking Switch scheme. This money would be used to incentivise SMEs to switch their current accounts and loans away from RBS (and NatWest, which is owned by RBS).
How much are the incentives worth?
The incentives are actually quite handsome and they are tied to annual turnover:
- Less than £15,000 in turnover = £750
- Between £15,000 and £100,000 = £1,000
- Between £100,001 and £500,000 = £3,000
- Between £500,001 and £1,000,000 = £3,000
- Between £1m and 1.5m = £6,250
- Between £1.5m and 2m = £13,125
- Between £2m to £2.5m = £16,875
- Between £2.5m to £5m = £25,000
- Between £5m to £7.5m = £25,000
- More than 7.5m = £50,000
There are also incentives in place for loan products. In this case, the cash amount for loan product transfers will be calculated by multiplying the outstanding loan balance transferred by 0.025.
You can check whether your business is eligible at https://businessbankingswitch.rbs.co.uk/
Noel Guilford