| answer text |
<p>Access to finance on flexible, competitive terms is essential for growing businesses.
Challenger banks and alternative finance providers have an important role to play
in widening choice and promoting competition.</p><p>Government is bringing into effect
provisions in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 which will require
the largest banks - where they decline lending requests from small business customers
- to offer those customers the opportunity for their details to be referred to a government-designated
funding platform. These platforms will be brought into operation later this year and
will allow SMEs to match their requirements with offers from peer-to-peer platforms
and challenger banks.</p><p>During the last 12 months, the British Business Bank has
supported 3,301 businesses through the peer-to-peer platforms Funding Circle, RateSetter
and Zopa. The British Business Bank also supports the growth of challenger banks by
providing wholesale funds alongside private sector investors.</p>
|
|
