Treating small and medium-sized businesses fairly

Recent scandals in which major banks have allegedly mistreated and even brought on the collapse of small and medium-sized businesses have led to the formation of vocal lobby groups for the injured customers. Adam Samuel delves into the holes in their regulatory protections.

Adam Samuel BA LLM DipPFS MCISI FCIArb Certs CII (MP&ER) Barrister and Attorney may be contacted at adamsamuel@aol.com. His book, ‘Complaints and Compensation: a Guide to the Financial Services Market’, is available from his website, www.adamsamuel.com.

This is personal. I have run my own business for two decades. During that time, every generation of politician has praised small business as an engine of the UK economy while doing everything possible to prevent such businesses succeeding. Business rates and planning laws are only part of the problem. Laws accord privileges to ‘consumers’, which are traditionally defined as people not acting in the course of business. Yet small businesses are just individuals who typically have a particular expertise that is almost never financial services related. It is convenient to think that businesses can take care of themselves. Then everyone tuts at the 50% failure rate of small businesses within their first two years.