Scottish National Investment Bank: review of performance 2026

Investment process

67. As well as speaking to the Bank’s leadership team and board, I spoke to a number of investees, would-be investees and co-investors about their experience of the Bank’s investment process.

68. The Bank has a rigorous internal process for considering individual investment propositions, assessing their alignment to its risk appetite, and looking at their fit with the Bank’s missions and its ambitions as an impact investor. And as befits a publicly funded institution, the Bank has to carry out a careful due diligence process before reaching its final investment decisions.

69. But I heard that, particularly in its early days, the Bank could sometimes take a long time to respond to initial enquiries; that its due diligence process, parts of which were outsourced to external providers, could lead to heavy information demands on small potential investees; and that communication about progress could be patchy or inconsistent.

70. I am reluctant to lean too heavily on evidence that is inevitably anecdotal and historic, particularly given that the Bank was in its start-up phase; and I am aware that in the past year or two the Bank has taken steps both to streamline its processes and to monitor and seek to reduce timescales.

71. I would, however, suggest that the Bank considers not only including indicators of time taken as part of the management information routinely presented to the board, but also proactively publishing data on this going forward – not least to demonstrate to potential co-investors that the Bank can be fleet of foot.