Bank of Ireland said it will fast-track payments to all of its SME suppliers during the Covid-19 outbreak, reducing the terms from 30 days to 5 days.
Bank of Ireland said that the change will remain in place until the end of June.
The change is designed to help alleviate potential cashflow pressures for businesses as they navigate through the challenges of Covid-19.
“These are challenging times for businesses and extremely difficult for SMEs in particular”
The bank has a range of SME suppliers across sectors including technology, advertising and recruitment which will benefit from the change.
Supporting SMEs
“These are challenging times for businesses and extremely difficult for SMEs in particular,” said Jackie Noakes, group chief operating officer at Bank of Ireland.
“As well as supporting our customers, we’ve also been looking at our SME suppliers and considering how we can assist them in a very practical way. Fast-tracking payment for their services by shortening payment terms and accelerating our processes will help with some of their potential cashflow pressures.
“It is important for larger businesses to support SMEs. When the country gets through the worst of this pandemic, SMEs will play a significant role in helping to drive our economic recovery.
“We have made a number of significant changes to how we operate to respond to this public health emergency and support our customers, colleagues and suppliers as much as we can.
“These include financial supports for customers and redeploying resources towards services which are most in demand. We will continue to review the supports required for our customers and suppliers as the impact of Covid-19 evolves further over the coming weeks.”
The move is the latest in a series of measures that the bank has taken in response to the crisis, including donating €1m in emergency funding to communities with urgent needs arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, restructuring its branch network, creating a priority hour for over-65s and carers, unveiling supports for businesses and waiving contactless fees.
Written by John Kennedy (john.kennedy3@boi.com)
Published: 6 April, 2020
