Virgin Money and the SME Finance Charter
The Virgin Group was founded with the spirit of entrepreneurism at its heart. At Virgin Money, we want to encourage that spirit in the UK’s SMEs through leading and innovative digitally led products and propositions and brilliant customer service.
That’s why we are committed to working with Government through the Business Finance Council (BFC) to ensure that we support SME customers to grow and thrive.
We have been a signatory to the Government’s SME Finance Charter since 2019 and are delighted to reaffirm our commitment to this important initiative following its refresh in May 2022.
Our Charter commitments:
We’re open for business and continue to lend
- We have a strong heritage of supporting businesses with a business banking lending portfolio of over £8bn.
- What’s more, as part of our commitments to the Banking Competition Remedies fund, we aim to increase our lending by an additional £2.2bn by the end of 2025, with at least £10 million funding businesses with strong ESG credentials.
- And we recognise it is essential to lend responsibly – putting the interests of our customers first, while supporting the UK economy.
We’ll help you build back better after Covid-19
- As a bank with a long history of helping businesses to thrive in difficult times, Virgin Money is committed to supporting SMEs as they look to build back better.
- That’s why we are proud to have worked with the Government on delivering Covid loan support schemes to protect small businesses and help them recover and grow.
- We intend to go beyond banking to help to start, scale and thrive through our collaboration with Virgin Startup, our Sustainable Business Coach app and the Levelling Upstarts programme all of which can be accessed by businesses across the UK.
- And during the summer of 2022 we will launch new tech capabilities for our customers to help them understand their business better and seamlessly access business-critical products and services, curated from some of Britain’s most innovative companies.
We’ll support your application and signpost other options if needed
- At each stage of the application process for a business loan, we will be clear about what information that we need from you to make an informed lending decision.
- Where we are unable to provide finance to your business, we’ll let you know the reason for this, and will signpost you to alternatives including making referrals to Government designated portals via the Bank referral scheme.
We’ll treat you fairly at all times
- We are committed to treating SME customers fairly and this is reflected in our internal policies and processes. We are a registered firm with the Lending Standards Board which publishes the Standards of Lending Practice for business customers which sets the benchmark for good SME lending practice in the UK.
We’ll continue to work with the Government-owned British Business Bank (BBB) to support SMEs
- We have a long-standing relationship with the British Business Bank and will continue to work with them as we seek to support SMEs to build back better post Covid-19.
- We signpost our SME customers to the range of guidance and resources available to all businesses from the British Business Bank including content on managing cashflow and independent advice services.
- To find out more about how the British Business Bank can support your business at british-business-bank.co.uk.