We have thrown our weight behind a consortium of PR and digital marketing agencies who have teamed up to support the small business community affected by the latest case of bank mis-selling – IRSA’s Interest Rate Swap Arrangements.
An estimated 300,000 small business are calculated to have been encouraged by their banks to enter into an ‘IRSA’ resulting in deals with crippling monthly penalty charges or excessive break charges which businesses cannot afford to buy out.
We have joined up with Brand Conversions and Ellmore Consultancy are provide pro bono support for independent campaign group Bully-Banks.
They will be adopting a two pronged strategy of highlighting the injustice suffered by small businesses as well as the wider impact on economic recovery.
The banks are accused of failing to warn their clients of potential risks and exit costs for what are termed ‘non-vanilla’ complex financial products, mostly sold at the bank’s instigation – often as a condition of continued borrowing.
Commenting on the campaign Andy Green of GREEN says: “There is a need to secure justice for the small businesses mis-sold these ‘Frankenstein financial products’. This is also creating a hidden brake on the economy with a significant proportion of small businesses – who are supposed to be the engine of recovery – being held back by these odious penalty costs.”
Just imagine what those 300,000 companies, who have been mis-sold IRSAs and are now paying onerous monthly charges, could do with that money. I suspect that many of them have held back from employing people as their biggest risk at the moment is the bank manager not worries about PAYE or NI.
For a further interesting take on it – get the inside view from banking industry insiders at the Honestly Banking on Interest Rate Swap Mis-selling: The next big scandal.
Further details about the campaign at www.bully-banks.co.uk
