ROYAL Bank of Scotland’s Boost scheme looks like a valuable initiative but may not do as much to repair the damage done to its reputation in small business circles by other actions as directors hope.
The giant lender is to be applauded for trying to use its sprawling network of connections and huge knowledge base to help firms deal with important issues such as how to guard against cyber crime.
In a fast changing world small businesses are likely to appreciate the expertise on offer and related opportunities to make new connections.
But it will take lots of reports from happy users of Boost to help dispel the unease caused by the behaviour of Royal Bank’s Global Restructuring Group following the financial crisis.
In November the City watchdog accused Royal Bank of “systematic” failings in the restructuring group, which led to the mistreatment of thousands of small business customers. The bank has set aside £400m to compensate customers that complain about the unit’s behaviour.
While RBS insists it is open for business, small firms continue to face challenges obtaining credit on what they regard as suitable terms.
Other banks may face criticism for their lending records and for branch closures.
However Royal Bank’s closure programme has been particularly high profile. The recent decision to close nine branches in Edinburgh likely did little to endear the brand to business or retail customers.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here