Firms look to bid for RBS fund

The starting gun has been fired for bidders of a £775 million fund from Royal Bank of Scotland, with the likes of Handelsbanken and Co-operative Bank emerging as prospective bidders.

The Banking Competition Remedies (BCR) body – which is tasked with distributing the cash – held its first market event yesterday to outline criteria just days before it formally posts application forms online on Monday.

BCR directors including Lord Godfrey Cromwell took questions from a full house of around 100 banks, lenders and fintechs in central London.

While a number of firms have already confirmed plans to submit bids for multi-million-pound awards, new contenders emerged at the market event.

Representatives were present from the likes of Nationwide, Co-operative Bank, Habib Bank Zurich, AIB, Oaknorth, Investec, Clearbank and Handelsbanken.

The Co-operative Bank’s chief executive Andrew Bester attended the event alongside business banking executives.

The lender confirmed that it was looking closely at the scheme and considering the options available.

A spokesman for Handelsbanken said they were investigating whether it would be possible to participate in the incentivised switching scheme, which will encourage small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers to ditch their RBS account for rival banks.

They add to the list of challenger banks including Metro, Starling, TSB and Clydesdale-owner CYBG, all of which are widely known to have been working on their respective bids for months.

It illustrates the wide-ranging applicants in line to compete for the £775m fund, which is provided by RBS as part of conditions attached to its £45 billion UK government bailout at the height of the financial crisis. Nearly 500 firms were invited to the event.