Female clients of Duncan Lawrie Private Bank will be offered the opportunity to suspend making interest payments on loans during their pregnancy and after the birth of a child, to help ease financial pressure on their business until they resume full earning capacity.
Stephen Buckland, Senior Banking Manager at Duncan Lawrie Private Bank, says: “We appreciate that pregnancy is a stressful enough time as it is, without being worried about a loan and keeping up with interest payments. At Duncan Lawrie Private Bank our aim is to understand our clients’ needs, and be as flexible as we can. That is why we have created a facility to enable female entrepreneurs to space out their interest payments, helping both them and their businesses.”
The loan facility will be particularly attractive to sole traders, such as freelancers and consultants. Duncan Lawrie Private Bank will offer them the chance to suspend interest payments on a loan for up to a year. The interest will still accrue during this payment “holiday”, and will be added to the total value of the loan.
For instance, if a woman has a business loan of £60,000, Duncan Lawrie Private Bank will increase the limit of the facility to take account of the interest that will accrue.
With interest rolled up over a year of maternity leave, the loan would increase (at current rates) to £64,315.
The extra £4,315 can be repaid in stages over the following twelve months or repaid together with original borrowing at the end of the term. Duncan Lawrie Private Bank will not charge a fee for amending the terms of the facility to take account of the rolled up interest arrangement.
Buckland adds: “Maternity leave loans are only available for our existing clients and where there is an existing facility. We hope deferring interest payments will be particularly useful for women who have worked hard to build up a business and want to keep it stable whilst they are not working full time. There may also be times when male clients wish to alter their repayment arrangements and we would of course consider every case on its merits. This could apply for instance when a man might take time off to look after the baby when a female entrepreneur wanted to get straight back to her business.”