The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has welcomed the support of Labour leader Ed Miliband for small firms that believe they have been mis-sold financial products.
In fact, the Opposition has backed the FSB's calls for a suspension on payments on complex financial products and an independent review into the issue.
This news comes just a day before the Financial Services Authority's (FSA) pilot redress scheme comes to an end.
Under this scheme, the FSB is worried that banks are still the ones to decide if they mis-sold to small businesses or not.
As a result, the FSB wrote a letter to chancellor George Osborne detailing its concerns about the lack of transparency in the current redress scheme and urging the government to set up a system that runs independently of the banks to ensure each company is treated fairly.
In response, Mr Miliband gave an interview to the Sunday Telegraph and called for a meeting with the FSA to tell them to act faster on mis-sold Interest Rate Swap Agreements.
These agreements were sold to small businesses between 2006 and 2009 taking out loans from banks to protect them against future interest rate rises.
Instead, the recession caused many interest rates to fall meaning small companies were faced with increased payments and late penalties.
As a result, the FSB warned that firms with these agreements are at risk of going under if they cannot meet their payments.
This also puts 80,000 jobs at risk.
John Walker, national chairman of the FSB, said: "So far small firms have had to wait almost four months for any redress since the FSA made its initial ruling that some businesses were mis-sold products.
"During this time, they've had to continue to meet payments and many have gone to the wall."
For these reasons, the FSB wants payments to be frozen, especially if the case drags on, and an independent scheme which will make the process quicker.
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