SMALL Scottish businesses are stepping up their protests against the removal of dedicated relationship managers from Bank of Scotland branches by owner Lloyds Banking Group.
Some long-term business customers of BoS are upset about their treatment since the takeover of HBOS by Lloyds last year. Companies on Islay are uniting to hold a meeting tomorrow night in Bowmore in reaction to their business relationship manager bei
ng made redundant from the BoS branch on the island.
The protest is being led by Paul Hathaway, managing director of Islay Ales, and Ailsa Hayes of the Spirited Soaps Company in Bowmore.
Alan Reid, Liberal Democrat MP for Argyll & Bute, is backing the call from businesses to have dedicated support from BoS available on the island.
When Lloyds and HBOS merged last year, their business banking units were restructured to concentrate relationship managers in commercial centres throughout Scotland. As a result there were redundancies, but a spokesman said BoS still had 340 relationship managers serving business customers across the country.
Reid has written to BoS to express his concern about the redundancies and restructuring and has received a reply from Donald Kerr, commercial banking director for BoS. Kerr wrote: "In previous years we did have people based in Argyll & Bute. However, we found that most of the contact between the bank and its customers was sporadic and over the phone."
The letter added that 75 per cent of its smaller business customers were already served by internet or telephone, rather than in branches.
Kerr has been invited to attend tomorrow night's meeting, but Hathaway said he had not yet received a reply.
Reid has also written to Chancellor Alistair Darling urging him to intervene and tell Lloyds – which is 43 per cent owned by the state – to reverse its decision to remove relationship managers from branches.
He said: "The bank was rescued by taxpayers' money and so has a moral duty to provide a service throughout the country, not just in big cities."
Hathaway said: "We want the bank to change its mind. Our local relationship manager knows the island and understands its varied economy, including fishing, agricultural, tourism and whisky. This issue will affect a lot of local areas."
Colin Borland, public affairs manager for the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland, said BoS was adopting the wrong strategy. He said its members wanted to speak to their local relationship managers in branches.
A BoS spokesman said: "In a small number of locations, including Islay, we found that most of the contact between the bank and its customers was sporadic and over the telephone.
"As a result, it was no longer commercially viable in these cases to retain a face-to-face business manager."
