Richard Roberts

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Email: [email protected]

After completing my doctorate in the early 1980s I joined Barclays as an industrial economist specialising in small business issues.  I retired from Barclays after 30 years in 2014 having set up and run the bank's internal SME Research Team as well as working on numerous government reviews of SME lending and SME banking competition. I was also Chief Economist (Head of Profession) for Barclays UK Banking from 2000 to 2014.

Prior to 2014 I was Barclays representative on numerous official committeess and organisations. Now in semi retirement I continue to be involved in a large range of SME activities such as

• Advisor to the Treasury Select Committee on SME Finance
• Consultancy work for UK Finance/British Bankers Association, the British Business Bank and some individual UK banks
• Judge on the NESTA Open Up Banking Challenge
• Member of the Investment Panel on the Responsible Finance RGF programme

At Aston I am a member of CREME and I have a long standing interest in issues relating to diversity and enterprise (especially finance issues). i support a number of team members in their research activities, as well in other areas of ABS

My own research is concerned with the longer term development of Small Business Support policy in the UK (including a particular emphaiss on ethnic minority issues)

I am also involved in research regarding the future funding of CDFIs/Enterprise Lenders in the UK (in conjunction with Steve Walker at Aston Reinvestment Trust) and on the advisory committee for the Cambridge Centre for Historical Geography looking at long term trends in the UK business stock

In summary my research interests are

ethnic and minority enterprise, business demographics, SME finance small business banking, small business policy

Google Scholar

https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=2N7QelYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra