LIBOR is the most important price in the world of finance – and hence affects us all. Before ‘Humpty fell off the wall’ our understanding of the ‘Cost of Funds’ was usually the Bank of Englands’ Base Rate. Most business loans and overdrafts were priced as ‘X% over base’. Base Rate has for some time [...]

‘The devil is in the detail’ – a very appropriate comment when it comes to appraising an Invoice Discounting deal. It is very common for a business to enter into a contract (with a provider of invoice discounting) in a hurry, without previous knowledge of the product and possibly feeling under some pressure to use the lender which [...]

This debate rages on, creating distractions and consuming negative energy. In reality: It is actually a relatively small percentage of SME’s (especially amongst the smallest businesses) that do want to borrow from their bank – that however still comes down to quite a big number. The best and most capable get their funding through to the [...]

Traditionally the bank manager would be ‘in the driving seat’ when it came to the annual overdraft review (sometimes, now, a more frequent event) in that they would tell you when it was, what information they wanted and organise the meeting. Sometimes that was at short notice but it didn’t matter, it all went smoothly [...]