With fears mounting over supply chain and financial disruptions as a result of Brexit, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has reportedly set aside a fund worth $2.6 billion to help small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) manage and mitigate the uncertainty.
Reports in the Financial Times said on Tuesday (Oct. 23) that RBS will use the funds for trade finance, term finance and liquidity financing for SMBs that conduct trade with the European Union (EU) or have significant exposure to foreign exchange (FX) volatility. The bank will reach out to an estimated 2,000 small business customers of RBS and NatWest to offer the financing.
Brexit “will require businesses to think strategically and tactically about how to navigate what is still an uncertain period ahead,” said RBS SEO of Commercial and Private Banking Alison Rose, according to FT.
RBS’ small business financing effort is in addition to the $1.3 billion the bank has allocated as part of its “growth funding” program, launched earlier this year, as the institution works to restore its reputation with small businesses after regulators found the bank to have mistreated some SMB customers. The bank has raised criticism against U.K. regulators for its inability to penalize RBS for that misconduct.
The bank has also criticized policymakers for “sleepwalking” toward a no-deal Brexit, in the words of RBS CEO Ross McEwan, FT said. McEwan warned earlier this month that such a scenario would have significant, negative economic effects.
Reports said that, in addition to boosting its reputation with small businesses, RBS is working to ensure that it retains SMB customers after the EU required it to provide $1 billion to promote industry competition and bank switching, resulting from its bailout following the financial crisis. That bailout program will begin in February.
The publication spoke with another, unnamed high-street bank that said it was examining how to ensure top financial institutions (FIs) are able to support corporate customers that face supply chain issues resulting from a no-deal Brexit, in response to concerns that some banks may withdraw credit.
“It’s about making sure Britain stays open,” the unnamed executive said.
Articul8 has launched a family of GenAI models built to optimize supply chain, manufacturing and industrial process operations.
The new A8-SupplyChain models are domain-specific and have the deep contextual understanding needed to autonomously translate complex technical documentation into structured, actionable sequences, the company said in a Friday (April 4) press release.
“We built A8-SupplyChain specifically to tackle the problems that general-purpose GenAI can’t: delivering accurate, transparent and fully traceable reasoning through complex technical documentation and real-world workflows,” Articul8 Founder and CEO Arun Subramaniyan said in the release. “This is not just another model — it’s a fully autonomous system built specifically for mission-critical environments.”
The A8-SupplyChain models support complex enterprise production environments and platforms, including customers and partners, according to the release.
They can use unstructured data, including PDFs, engineering diagrams, maintenance logs, quality systems and structured tables, the release said.
Because they are trained on high-fidelity technical documentation, the models deliver AI-driven recommendations without extensive manual customization, per the release.
“With A8-SupplyChain, we’re giving aerospace and defense leaders something new: a fully orchestrated system that doesn’t just generate answers — it understands, adapts and drives outcomes,” Subramaniyan said in the release. “This is the next leap forward in enterprise AI — intelligent systems that operate at scale, with context, precision and trust built in.”
Enterprises are turning to AI to automate not just repetitive tasks but also more complex processes like compliance monitoring, fraud detection and supply chain optimization, PYMNTS reported in January.
Articul8 was established in January 2024 by Intel and DigitalBridge Group, which joined forces to create it as an independent company that provides enterprise customers with a secure and vertically optimized GenAI software platform.
The company’s platform enables business to harness the power of AI while keeping their data secure; offers a turnkey GenAI software platform that delivers speed, security and cost-efficiency to large enterprise customers; and supports a range of hybrid infrastructure alternatives, allowing customers to choose cloud, on-premises or hybrid deployment options.
Today, in addition to the new A8-SupplyChain, Articul8 offers domain-specific models for various industries, including energy and semiconductor, according to the Friday press release.
