Abbey National has launched a new finance Web site for small business customers choosing to conduct their financial affairs online.
The new site, www.anbusiness.com, offers businesses financial advice and solutions covering issues such as cash flow management, commercial mortgages and financing assets. Visitors can search for information based on their business and financial needs. They can download information, request an adviser to call them, or apply online for products and services.
The site also offers a series of business guides providing advice and insight for all firms, from start-up to established company. The guides cover topics such as writing a business plan, growing a company and managing human resources. A business grant search facility is also available that enables companies to source financial support made available by various organisations.
Gary Hockey-Morley, managing director of Abbey National business, explains: "Two of the biggest problems facing small businesses are lack of time and lack of advice. Our new Web site addresses both these problems - an easy to use banking service, and jargon free financial advice based on a company's needs, rather than products on offer."
Nearly 30 per cent of Abbey National business customers bank online, almost double the national average. Recent figures from the British Bankers Association show that 15 per cent of small businesses currently use online banking, a leap of 20 per cent in the last six months of 2001 alone.