Opinion: Why I had to protest outside the House of Commons

Lavender Hotel Group managing director Stefan Sikorski tells Lancashire Business View how the rate swap scandal, which cost his business £600,000, forced him into action.

In March 2007, I was mis-sold an interest hedging product and since it has recently transpired that a potential £12bn is now owed to businesses by the banks, I felt the need to rally fellow businessmen and women who have been duped into paying extortionate interest rates on business loans by the banks to speak out like I have.

Whilst I am in broad agreement with the way that the economy has been handled to guide us through the recession, I cannot condone this wholesale mistreatment of SMEs, who are the drivers of the country's future prosperity. At a time when we are looking to increase regulation of the media, are we sure that we have adequate controls over the banks who have even more power and have been gradually unveiled as dishonest?

My aim was to reinforce the point that the government needs to put pressure on the banks to speed up compensation repayment for direct losses to businesses in the first instance, and then redress consequential losses thereafter.