THE Scottish Government’s flagship £2 billion investment bank was last night blasted as “unfocused and ill-conceived” amid calls for a major overhaul. 

A leading expert has said ministers must “hit the reset button” on the state-owned Scottish National Investment Bank – with just seven companies receiving funding from it to date despite launching 18 months ago.

Ross Brown, a Professor in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Finance at St Andrews University, has warned in a new paper for the Reform Scotland think tank of “strategic deficiency” at the heart of SNIB.

And Prof Brown said the bank’s “vague”objectives had led to “unhelpful mission-creep” – with it unclear whether its chief goal was to boost the economy’s “green infrastructure” or to “propel business growth” for small firms.

He added: “The two are very different objectives and using the same instrument to achieve both seems at best ill-advised and at worst foolhardy.”

Prof Brown also contrasted the lack of an “effective strategy” for SNIB with “the very high levels of remuneration being awarded to the senior management team”.

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