It was announced today that RBS would be making available an extra £3b in the SME sector and the press release even mentioned that this would partly be used in their invoice funding division.

Judging by recent activity it would seem that rather than tell the world that their factoring and invoice discounting divisions are not interested in new business they are continuing to quote but at such uncompetitive rates that no-one in their right minds would take up their offer.

Just this morning we had an enquiry from a well established firm of recruitment consultants turning over £1.7m and with a healthy balance sheet who were looking at invoice finance not because they desperately needed the money but to be prepared for the inevitable hiccups in their cash flow. Their outstanding debts were £300,000 and they were looking to raise a maximum of £100,000 as a stand by facility.

We approached one of the independent factoring companies known for both the excellence of their service as well as competitive pricing and they quoted a rate of 0.45% with a minimum of £6,000 for a confidential invoice discounting facility whilst the company approached RBS Invoice Finance directly as they banked with RBS who quoted them exactly double.