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SMEs angry at Competition Commission decision

Aug 24 2007

Entrepreneurs are unhappy that the interest-rate incentives for small businesses have been scrapped.

The Competition Commission decided to act on the proposals of the Office of Fair Trading and remove certain banking restrictions that favoured SMEs.

Restrictions were imposed on Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and The Royal Bank of Scotland four years ago, which meant that they had to offer small enterprises interest-bearing accounts or free money transmission services.

Commenting on the lifting of the restrictions, a 'bewildered' Mike Cherry, financial affairs chairman for the Federation of Small Businesses, says: 'It flies in the face of all the evidence we have given and completely contradicts the experience of thousands of our members.'

The Competitions Commission came to its decision after finding that the big four banks controlled 85 per cent of the market and make up to £2 billion a year in profits from small enterprise.

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