Royal Bank of Scotland launches loan service for SMEs

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is to launch a digital site that will offer business loans to small and medium-sized businesses within hours.

The site, which is named “Esme”, was developed by RBS’s in-house innovation lab and is being launched under the NatWest brand.

Access

The service will offer loans of up to £150,000 with a five-year maximum period to small businesses, including those which are not customers of RBS.

This means SMEs will now have access to loans outside of working hours at all stages of the loan application process, including credit scoring.

The initiative has been launched as part of RBS’s aims to digitise its services.

Response

RBS Chief Executive Officer of Corporate, Commercial & Private Banking Business Alison Rose said that Esme has been launched in response to the increase of similar peer-to-peer and direct lending sites in the UK.

She added: “The last thing SMEs want is to spend hours filling in paper work, so this allows them to quickly complete a digital process.”