Banks end sponsorship of family business awards

Coutts and JP Morgan have decided to end their sponsorship of family business awards in the UK, after a long commitment to honouring family-run enterprises.

Kate Murphy, head of UK family business at JP Morgan, told CampdenFB that the bank had ended its seven-year sponsorship of the JP Morgan IFB Family Business Honours because “there were a number of family business awards and we therefore felt we weren’t promoting family businesses as effectively as we could”.

But she added: “In order to keep our approach fresh and relevant we decided to focus on more niche events.

“Next year we are hoping to host a number of events, including some with politicians making them more aware of family business issues,” she said, adding that the bank is also involved in the upcoming IFB Women’s Forum in November.

A spokeswoman for Coutts told CampdenFB that the bank decided to stop the Coutts Prize for Family Business because of the economic climate and is instead focusing on research.

“With the economic climate affecting many family businesses, it was decided that after five years of successfully running the Coutts Prize for Family Business, this was a good time to take a break and look at new, fresh initiatives aimed at family businesses,” she said.

“This year [Couttes] has been doing a number of research projects into family businesses and is looking at launching a new major initiative next year,” she said, adding that the private bank has not ruled out restarting its awards in the future.