SME bank disputes

Banks could extend small business disputes scheme The banking industry will consider extending the scope of a new redress scheme for business owners. As well as a dispute resolution service, on which banks are working with representatives of small businesses, a new scheme will allow the owners of small companies to ask for past grievances against banks to be examined where their complaint has not been assessed by a previous compensation scheme. A spokeswoman for UK Finance, the banking industry trade body, said that the steering group setting up the schemes would consider looking at complaints going back to January 2000. Lewis Shand Smith, the independent chairman of the dispute resolution service implementation steering group, said that the service would be "key to rebuilding a relationship of trust between banks and their small business customers".