Free service offers farmers help to resolve bank disputes

Farm businesses trying to settle banking disputes dating back to 2001 have six months to register those complaints with the Business Banking Resolution Service (BBRS) and get free advice.

The scheme, set up to resolve disputes between small and mid-sized businesses (SMEs) and their banks, will close for new historical complaints on 14 February 2023.

The aspect of the scheme that is set to end covers complaints first registered in the period from 1 December 2001 to 31 March 2019.

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If a farm business had an annual turnover of between £1m and £6.5m at the time of the complaint, it could qualify for free and impartial alternative dispute resolution if the case has not been settled, been subject to an independent review, or gone to court.

Businesses that have since closed, merged or been sold are also eligible to apply.

A dispute resolution specialist is assigned to each case, acting as a single point of contact and offering practical support.

The most common types of complaints the BBRS sees are around fraud, property valuation, fees and charges, personal guarantees, account issues and mis-selling. 

The BBRS can make both financial and non-financial awards when a complaint is upheld. 

Some of these cases have progressed right through the BBRS system and have received an adjudication; when upheld in the customer’s favour, the body recommends what the bank can do to put things right.

Multiple cases have been resolved outside the formal adjudication process, with banks and customers resolving their complaint via a settlement or meditation.

In these cases, the BBRS had played a key role in getting the two sides together to achieve a resolution. 

The BBRS is urging farm businesses with historical banking disputes to use its online tool to check if they can apply for support.

There is also an aspect of the scheme that covers more recent unresolved complaints, for the period from 1 April 2019 onwards.

This contemporary scheme, which will remain live, is open to businesses with an annual turnover of up to £10m and with total assets of up to £7.5m and which are not eligible to take their complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. 

A BBRS spokesman said: “We deal with banking complaints about a variety of issues and if anyone in the farming sector believes they have an eligible complaint they can contact us or visit our website for more information about the types of complaints we can help with. If they do have an eligible complaint, they can register this on our registration page.’’