Eligible HSBC business customers will benefit from the free text alert service for informal overdrafts, which will notify and then give customers the opportunity to credit their account by the end of the day to avoid paying informal overdrafts fees and interest.

James Cliffe, HSBC UK Head of Business Banking, said: “We care about doing what is right for our business customers, and this new overdraft text alert service will do just that.

“The text alert service will give our business customers more room to manoeuvre and manage their finances by avoiding informal overdrafts and resulting fees and interest. This will provide additional savings and greater clarity for our customers, allowing them to focus more time on what is most important – successfully running their business.”

HSBC first introduced an overdraft text alert service for personal customers more than one year ago. The text alert service has helped save personal customers £100 million and by the end of 2015 HSBC had sent more than 15 million text alerts.

The HSBC business overdraft text alerts are free of charge and will automatically be sent to eligible business customers. Customers will not need to register for the service and can opt out at any time.