Bank of Ireland to fast-track payments to SME suppliers

Bank of Ireland 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, which will remain in place until the end of June, is designed to help alleviate potential
cashflow pressures for businesses as they navigate through the challenges of Covid-19. Bank of Ireland has a range of SME suppliers across sectors including technology, advertising and recruitment which will benefit from the change.

Discussing the new measure, Jackie Noakes, Group Chief Operating Officer, Bank of Ireland said: “These are challenging times for businesses and extremely difficult for SMEs in particular. As well as supporting our customers, we’ve also been looking at our SME suppliers and considering how we can assist them in a very practical way. Fast-tracking payment for their services by shortening payment terms and accelerating our processes will help with some of their potential cashflow pressures. It is important for larger businesses to support SMEs. When the country gets through the worst of this pandemic, 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.”