Taxpayers bear cost of scheme to boost banking competition heraldscotland.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from heraldscotland.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Picture: PA By Kristy Dorsey A £275m scheme to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises to switch from Royal Bank of Scotland has closed with a total of 69,135 firms changing providers. The Incentivised Switching Scheme (ISS) forms part of the Alternative Remedies programme that was launched to address EU regulators’ concerns about the £45 billion taxpayer bailout of the group formerly known as Royal Bank of Scotland during the 2008 financial crisis. The RBS Group changed its name to NatWest in July of last year. Qualifying SMEs received dowries worth up to £50,000 if they moved to one of 10 approved alternative banks. The original plan was for the scheme to close after 120,000 had switched, or when all of the dowry was spent, with the latter achieved at the end of June after 28 months in operation.