HSBC drags its feet over bounce back loans

HSBC is forcing small business owners to wait more than a month for Governmentbacked loans that were promised to arrive in days.

Bounce-back loans, launched in May, were sold by HM Treasury as ‘quick and easy-toaccess’ finance to get businesses back on track following the pandemic. Small firms and sole traders can apply for up to £50,000 at 2.5pc with the cash appearing within days. But almost one in four small business owners have waited for more than a month, or are still waiting, according to MoneySavingexpert.

one of the worst offenders is HSBC, which kept more than a third (42 pc) of applicants waiting more than a month before turning them down.

Sole trader Zac Thornton, who runs a guttering maintenance business, applied for a HSBC bounce back loan on June 9, but has yet to hear anything back despite several fruitless phone calls. The father-of-two was forced to stop working for three weeks when the country was put into lockdown and needs a loan of £5,000 to make up lost income.

Zac, 42, from Crawley, West Sussex, eventually got through to someone on the phone only to be told he would have to wait until his application was top of the pile.

He says: ‘It’s so frustrating. My finances are a month behind and I don’t want to have keep putting business expenses on credit cards; the longer I wait, the more in debt I will be. I have had friends apply for the loans with different banks which have been approved in 48 hours. HSBC’s attitude towards helping small businesses is terrible.’

HSBC said sole trader applications must go through additional checks, but that Zac should expect confirmation in the next few days. It also emerged yesterday that a glitch at HSBC had caused some applicants to receive loan offers in their own names rather than the name of their business. The bank said those who received the loan in their own name would not be personally liable.