Businesses | Do What Matters

Doing what matters for businesses

Doing what matters for businesses focuses on treating them fairly and helping them grow. COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the UK economy and has hit small businesses hard. During 2020, we focused on helping businesses get through a challenging year.

Late payments can have a material impact on small business cashflow. The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) reported that three in five small businesses have been subject to late or frozen payments in the wake of the outbreak. This is why in 2020 we became a signatory of the Prompt Payment Code, a voluntary code of practice for businesses, administered by the Office of the Small Business Commissioner on behalf of the Government, which requires signatories to pay 95% of invoices within a maximum of 60 days. In the second half of 2020, we exceeded our goal; paying 96% of our small and medium-size suppliers in seven days.

Interim Small Business Commissioner Philip King said:

“By providing a positive example of prompt payment practice, TSB show their commitment to ending a culture of late business payment. I hope to see more leading businesses in the financial sector following TSB's lead and working with my team to make payment prompt.”

TSB participated in the Government’s Bounce Back Loan (BBL) and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan (CBILs) schemes to support businesses through the COVID-19 crisis. In 2020, we provided over £500 million of BBLs to over 20,000 small businesses, and over £2.5 million of CBILs to 74 businesses.