All of which is depressingly familiar if we consider that it is the major banks that have been tasked with reaching out to companies to provide the CBILS. Lenders have complained both in public and behind the scenes to the Chancellor that the whole thing is just too dizzyingly risky. This is in spite of government attempts to grease the hinges private sector loan books with Treasury guarantees worth a generous 80 per cent of the total borrowed.

No, the banks argue - still too risky. They need more security in the form of full guarantees for 100 per cent of debt, or they couldn’t possibly risk shareholders’ investments. Meanwhile the investments in money, resource, hard work and passion made by millions of small business owners over the last decade since the last time the banking sector let them down, are deemed expendable.

What we all need to understand is that if the thousands of SMEs that will go to the wall through no fault of their own but thanks to coronavirus, our economy simply won’t recover at the rate it should from an already disastrous downturn. Lenders need to take ownership of this fact and become part of the solution now. And if they aren’t prepared to step up the support required, we need to think of ways to make them act responsibly.

In our view, there is already a tool in the armoury of the Treasury that can be instrumental in making a difference: its stake in the part-nationalised RBS.

As owner of NatWest, which comprises the UK’s largest branch network, the RBS has unparalleled capacity to support SME business recovery in our communities. It has already proven to be the largest per-business lender under the CBILS but it could and should do much more.

Indeed, the Treasury ought to be prepared to use its 62.4 per cent majority shareholding in RBS to mandate the banks’ executives to approve the majority of loans requested by small businesses. There is still a wall of credit available at historically low interest rates and it’s time RBS repaid the generosity of taxpayers who bailed it out post financial crisis, by providing bailouts to small businesses in a similar position now.