TSB unveils support for SME suppliers and customers during coronavirus outbreak

The move will apply to all companies that supply goods and services to the bank, even if the contract allows it to pay over a longer period.

The move is designed to provide cash flow certainty for small suppliers. TSB has also pledged to write a 30-day guarantee into all supplier contracts going forward, as a further commitment to the UK businesses it works with in the future. Where possible, the bank will seek to pay suppliers even sooner than the 30-day period.

Alongside ensuring prompt payment TSB is reaching out to all small suppliers to discuss specific challenges they face.

This comes on the back of TSB offering to support its 100,000 business customers with a package of measures and the reassurance of being the only bank to offer a Lending Pledge if businesses get into distress. The pledge was developed in 2019 in conjunction with stakeholders including Federation of Small Business and the APPG on Fair Business Banking:

• Be fair and transparent in everything we do, keeping the customer informed as to the course of action we are taking and why.
• Give customers reasonable time to return their business to health.
• Not raise loan margins on existing facilities if a business enters into financial difficulty.
• Not default a business if it is up to date on its loan payments, but a valuation change impacts a covenant.
• Not demand full repayment or remove an overdraft unless a business has breached our terms of lending.
• Not run their business support unit as a profit centre and will not incentivise their Partners for additional income earnt on accounts in business support.

One of the suppliers that will benefit from this new pledge is employee wellbeing service, IPRS Health, a long-term supplier of physiotherapy, mental health, ergonomic solutions and workplace equipment to TSB across its UK offices.