Royal Bank of Scotland is facing a call to "come clean" at its annual meeting in Edinburgh tomorrow on the number of interest rate swap agreements (IRSAs) it has sold to small businesses across the UK, writes Simon Bain.
Bully-Banks, a campaign group set up by small businesses affected by alleged mis-selling of IRSAs, said as many as 200,000 could have been sold by banks to business customers, but other estimates put the total at 20,000.
Jeremy Roe, a small business owner who started the group which now has over 400 members, said: "Being a publicly-owned bank, we have a right to know exactly how many IRSAs were sold by RBS – so we can begin to understand the real damage caused by these products."
He said they were "suitable for major corporations and international hedge funds but not suitable for small businesses".
The group claims the demands for extra interest payments from small business customers by banks is now "creating a hidden brake on wider economic recovery".
RBS told The Herald last week that it had followed proper procedures in all its loan sales, and invited any dissatisfied customer to contact the bank.
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