Loan break for Barclays customers

2 March 2001



Loan break for Barclays customers

By Robert Harris

BARCLAYS BANK has announced a “loan break” for farmers to help reduce cashflow problems caused by foot-and-mouth precautions.

Farmers can freeze their loan repayments from Monday (5 March), said Barclays Agricultural Banking managing director Grant Phillips.

The concession will remain in place for up to three months for all of the 20,000 farmers Barclays has on its books.

All farmer customers at Barclays are eligible for the scheme, not just livestock producers, said Mr Phillips.

The aim is to ease pressure on short-term cashflow which may have been impacted by the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

Mr Phillips said: “If they wish, farmers can then choose to extend the loan for three months to make up for the break.”

However, the agreed rate of interest will still accrue on the loans.

Cashflow problems have started to bite in some ancillary industries, such as abattoirs, says Mr Phillips. Few farms have yet been affected.

“We are still, to an extent, in the IACS period. But we are putting this in place before cashflow becomes an issue.”