According to new research from neobank Allica Bank, Scottish small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are losing out on more than £370 million annually due to not shopping around for better interest rates on their business savings.

The analysis revealed that the ‘big six’ high street banks offer an average interest rate of 1.45% on small business savings, down from 1.59% earlier in the year.

Beyond the big six, however, rates of up to 4.33% are available from challenger banks, a figure nearly three times higher than the big six.

For SMEs with an average £75,000 in savings, the discrepancy between big six interest rates and what’s available elsewhere is equivalent to £2,157 per year, the neobank noted.

The neobank also indicated that, with around 170,650 SMEs across Scotland, this equates to a loss of approximately £368,092,000 for Scotland’s economy.

For established SMEs with larger deposits of savings, the annual figure lost could potentially be much higher.

These figures come off the back of research produced last year, in which Allica found that SMEs are losing more than £7.5 billion per year in “missing” savings interest.

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Speaking on the findings from the new research, Steven Smilie, Scotland relationship manager at Allica Bank, said: “Scotland’s SME economy is Scotland’s real economy, accounting for 170,650 businesses.

“These businesses are the life and soul of communities across Scotland and the difference between boarded up shops and vibrant high-streets.

“Despite this, SMEs aren’t getting the returns they deserve from high-street banks with interest rates that are consistently lower than are offered to bigger businesses.

“This lost income could represent a significant boost to the Scottish economy and be put toward investment, employment and a better deal for employees.

“The high-street banks are taking SME customers for granted, and those customers should shop around and get the return on their savings that they deserve.”