Santander's £40m fund for region's SMEs

SANTANDER, the Spanish banking group, has set aside £40m to support North West small and medium-sized businesses.

The funding, announced by chief executive Ana Botin, is part of a £200m pot set aside by the bank to support small firms outside London.

The lender will invest directly in regional growth funds and will also back a programme for SMEs based around universities and local charitable projects.

The scheme is seen as Santander’s alternative to the Treasury's idea of a Big Society Bank, which Ms Botin walked away from earlier this year.

UK lenders were asked to contribute £1.3bn to the Big Society Bank to fund social projects and regional business developments as part of the Project Merlin deal with the Government. However Santander wanted to retain control over where it was investing.

The bank's share of the North West SME market will be strengthened dramatically in the next year - 120 out of 318 branches it is buying from Royal Bank of Scotland are in this region.

The RBS deal will nearly treble its market share nationally, from from 3.4% to around 10%.

(Article from The Business Desk)