Businesses should ' shop around '   for banking services

 
Smaller businesses should look around for the best banking deals in light of the Competition Commisions Provisional decision to lift the price controls imposed on the U K ' s four lasgest banks for servicing SME accounts.

The controls mean that the banks - Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and the Royal Bank of Scotland  have to offer all SME customers either interest on credit balances at a specified rate ( 2.5 per cent below the Bank of England base rate or higher), or free core money transmission services ( such as direct debit payments and cash transfers).