I suppose, to use the classic academic phrase from Morecambe and Wise, 'It's all the right notes, not necessarily in the right order.' And I think most of the areas that it could and should be doing, it's doing them, but in some places not doing as well as it could. Certainly, the biggest complaints that I've had are in terms of—. And I think this is really important to say because, obviously, the development bank is seen as two things: it's seen, obviously, as a funding mechanism, as a bank on its own, but it is owned—100 per cent owned—by the Welsh Government and therefore it's responsible to the Welsh taxpayer.
And what we always wanted was for the bank to be different. We didn't want it, shall we say, to have all the bad elements of what Finance Wales was about, which was quite secretive—it had high interest rates and it dealt with companies not in a way that any company should expect to be dealt with. And there have been over 2,000 businesses that have been supported by the development bank. But when I put a note out on LinkedIn, as you do, to say, 'I'm doing this today, anybody want to give any comments that I can pass on to the committee?', what was interesting about that was that I did have a lot of comments, but nobody was prepared to do it publicly. Now, why is that? Wales is a small place. The most significant thing that was said was, 'Well, if I say anything bad, I won't get any funding in the future.' Now isn't that a terrible indictment of what the perception of a development bank is, if that's what they feel?
And I think a range of businesses have come—. And I've heard this over the last six, seven years, that valuations are too low, decisions are taking far too long and terms are unacceptable with a 'take it or leave it' attitude. Now, that may be a minority of businesses that have faced that, but that shouldn't happen to any business that comes to the Government for support, which is what we're doing here.
I've also seen instances—and I know this because I've had to intervene on a number of occasions to help these businesses—where directors have been imposed on businesses, where they feel they've been bullied by those directors, where there have been moves to basically get rid of the original founders. And the development bank as a funder has just stood there and done nothing, and I think that is quite an important element of the way that the bank is perceived. And if that does happen, and I know it does happen—. But, again, if I asked those people to come in front of the committee today, they'd say, 'Oh, I'm not putting my head above the parapet, why would I do that?' But I know, because I have documented evidence on all of this.
And to be fair, that is really unacceptable, because if this is supposed to be something different—. And I know that there are two sides to every story and I know this is a commercial world, but I think every individual who approaches the bank and then subsequently gets funding has the right to be treated with the respect that they do when setting up that business. And that hasn't happened, on a number of occasions, to—and this is what I've found strangest of all—individuals who, shall we say, have quite a considerable business reputation in Wales.