In October 2008, less than a month after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the United States, then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown unveiled a plan he called “unprecedented but essential”. Of the £37bn Brown committed to bailing out the big banks, the lion’s share – £20bn of taxpayers’ money – was aimed at saving the Royal Bank of Scotland.
For the United Kingdom to provide state aid of this scale to one of its banks, RBS had to agree with the European Commission to launch a £425m Capability and Innovation fund, aimed at fostering competition. This fund is now becoming available to SMEs, in the form of grants ranging from £5m to £120m, and Anne Boden wants in.
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