Since its founding eight years ago, British Business Bank has established itself as an important participant in the funding markets for UK SMEs and startups. In this episode, its CEO Louis Taylor tells us what it is doing and how it is going about it.
We start by discussing how the Bank fits into the UK ecosystem. Louis discusses the bank's mandate and how it goes about fulfilling it. It aims to change market failures through a variety of projects. Louis discusses several of these and how the Bank aims to catalyse others to fill the gaps.
There are several specific areas that concern EIS and VCT investors and we look at some of those. The gap in regional equity funding is well known and BBB has some tailored programmes to address them. We also talk about the challenges of improving diversity and addressing issues in the green economy.
Links
British Business Bank website - https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/
Subscribe to the EIS Navigator podcast on most services here: https://the-eis-navigator.captivate.fm/listen
Suggested book
The Entrepreneurial Myth: A manifesto for real business by Louise Nicolson
Bio
Louis Taylor
CEO, British Business Bank
Louis Taylor is CEO of the British Business Bank, the UK’s government owned economic development Bank. Prior to that, he was Chief Executive of UK Export Finance (UKEF), the UK’s export credit agency, for seven years. He also held roles as a Director General in the Department for International Trade, and a member of its Executive Committee and Management Board.
Before joining UKEF, Louis held a range of senior roles at Standard Chartered Bank, including from 2013 to 2015 as Chief Operating Officer of Group Treasury, based in London. Before that, he spent three years as the bank’s CEO for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, based in Ho Chi Minh City. During this time he was also Vice Chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (Eurocham). He joined Standard Chartered in London in 2004, working in Group Corporate Development, which undertakes the bank’s acquisitions, divestments and other inorganic growth initiatives.
His earlier career included eight years working for JP Morgan in debt capital markets and mergers and acquisitions, and five years in corporate development and strategy with two industrial companies, Cookson Group plc and BTR plc.
Louis is a trustee of the charity Sightsavers, which prevents sight loss and avoidable blindness, and promotes equal rights for the disabled. He is also a former chair of trustees of the charity Music in Prisons, which runs music education projects to help rehabilitate offenders, and a former chair of governors of the Royal Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne. He has an MA in Law from the University of Cambridge.
