Nationwide abandons business banking proposition

Banking Competition Remedies (BCR) has announced that the lender has decided not to proceed with its Nationwide for Business proposition and has returned £50m from the Capability and Innovation Fund.

BCR manages the Capability and Innovation Fund which encourages eligible lenders to develop and improve the financial products and services which are available to SMEs.

Metro Bank recently returned £50m of its original £120m grant to the BCR as part of a 'strategic review'.

As a result, £100m of funding is now available to be redeployed to potential applicants in supporting the UK SME market as soon as is feasible.

Nationwide Building Society CEO, Joe Garner, commented: “Our priority as a building society must always be our existing members and employees. Covid-19 has changed the medium-term interest rate landscape, meaning the business case for entering the market is no longer viable. Therefore, our absolute focus will be on supporting our members and our employees through the immediate difficult time and future financial implications of the virus.”

In a statement, BCR said: “These returns of funds and the further funding round announced today are in line with the design and processes of BCR. Awardees’ businesses evolve in the light of changing circumstances and both Metro and now Nationwide have been very straightforward with BCR about their respective cases. The outcome is that BCR has some £100m to redeploy and has now achieved the necessary agreements to do so earlier than was otherwise possible.
 
“This is positive news for the many potential applicants who have already contacted us. Our awardees are delivering competitive and valuable solutions at a time of great challenges for SMEs and those who serve them. We will deploy these funds, as foreseen in the design of BCR and now accelerated, in further support of innovative ideas to improve competition in financial services to SMEs.”