Six in ten small businesses in the UK have never tried to open an account with a High Street bank because of the complexities involved, a new survey has claimed.

For those that had applied for a traditional business bank account, the average wait for approval was 16 days, according to the research from Advanced Payment Solutions (APS). Over 15 per cent had to wait over 26 days and just 6 per cent were approved on the day that they applied.

A third of respondents believed that “dealing with banking red tape makes operating a business a laborious task”, while 39 per cent described interacting with their bank as a “necessary evil of operating a business”.

The survey also found that small businesses were paying an average of £468 a year to hold a business account with a High Street bank, while 16 per cent said that the complex fee structure meant they did not know how much they were being charged.

Other difficulties highlighted by the small businesses canvassed included gaining access to credit such as overdrafts and loans, with less than a quarter granted the full amount of credit they requested from their bank.

Rich Wagner, CEO and founder of APS, commented: “It’s worrying to see that UK SMEs are finding it so difficult to gain access to a basic High Street business bank account. The laborious credit checks and paperwork that SMEs must endure are an unnecessary hurdle, and is more to do with banks ensuring that their new small business customers will be profitable for them, than a risk assessment tool. This highlights that banks are not always best placed to serve the needs of the smallest business customers.”

Wagner added that many small business owners who did not operate a business bank account were relying on “risky alternatives” such as cash or personal bank accounts, which put their own credit scores on the line.

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