Bank of Ireland UK said it will fast-track payments to all its SME suppliers during Covid-19, reducing the standard terms from 30 days to within five days.
The change will remain in place until the end of June and "is designed to help alleviate potential cashflow pressures for businesses as they navigate through the challenges of Covid-19."
The bank has a range of SME suppliers across sectors, including technology and business services, which it said will benefit from the change.
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Ian McLaughlin, CEO of Bank of Ireland UK said: “These are challenging times for businesses and extremely difficult for SMEs in particular.
"While we have taken steps to support our customers, we have also been looking at our SME suppliers and considering how we can best help them. Our decision to fast-track payment for their services by shortening payment terms and accelerating our processes will be a real practical benefit to help with some of their potential cashflow pressures.
"It is important for larger businesses to support SMEs. When the worst of this pandemic is over, we know SMEs will play a significant role in helping to drive our economic recovery.
“We have made a number of significant changes to how we operate to respond to this public health emergency and support our customers, colleagues and suppliers as much as we can.
"These include financial supports for customers and redeploying resources towards services which are most in demand. We will continue to review the supports required for our customers and suppliers as the impact of Covid-19 evolves further over the coming weeks.”
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Source: Written from press release
