Four in 10 businesses in the UK are planning to change their banking provider due to slow support that has been offered during the COVID-19 pandemic, research from Encompass Corporation has revealed.

Encompass, the Know Your Customer (KYC) RegTech software provider, found that 41% of companies were looking to make a switch due to poor services during the crisis.
 
The data was obtained through a survey of 200 business decision makers in large and medium sized companies and conducted by independent polling company, Censuswide. It also revealed that 42% of firms had admitted to waiting over two weeks for a business loan application from their current banking provider. Another 46% had noticed significant delays in their bank’s onboarding process since the start of lockdown. 
 
Almost half (49%) of business decision makers also revealed that their bank has yet to directly offer financial support during the coronavirus crisis, while 40% agreed that their bank’s online digital services and support around COVID-19 had been poor. Encompass’ research also indicated that 45% of companies are planning to make redundancies due to a lack of revenue in the coming months. 

Encompass CEO, Wayne Johnson, commented: “The COVID-19 crisis has had a big impact on all sectors of British industry, especially financial services. In fact, many banks are being forced to run a skeleton crew of remote workers, and a number are still operating outdated legacy IT systems, which are unable to cope with the influx in demand for banking services.
 
“This move from on-premises to remote working has underlined the value of Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions. Standard, out of the box solutions can be up and running in a matter of days and be easily accessed remotely, via computers or mobile devices, without having to contend with firewall issues – something that has posed a significant challenge to many organisations.

“These factors could make all the difference when migrating employees to our ‘new normal’ and ensuring they have the data and systems they need to work effectively at their fingertips.”

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