Mr. Ian Black:

There are two questions there. The loss to date reflected the set-up costs and in terms of the establishment costs of getting the company up and running before the schemes were put in place so we had the staffing systems in place. In terms of the question about a bad debts provision, the accounts are prepared in accordance with accounting standards, in this case FRS 102. One is required, under that accounting standard, to carry out an impairment review at least once a year. In terms of what we have, we have loans to banks, loans to non-banks and the risk sharing schemes.

In 2019, an impairment review was carried out and there was not a need to make a bad debt provision or an impairment provision at that time. There was no objective evidence of impairment. We lend our money to the banks and they lend on to the SMEs. I do not expect to get a bad debt. For that to happen the banks would have to fail. That is unlikely.