The banks were found to have broken rules imposed by the regulator
The Competition and Markets Authority has reprimanded six high street banks that have broken rules imposed by the regulator.
The banks found to have broken the rules are Bank of Ireland, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Metro Bank, and NatWest.
Under the Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017, banks and building societies are required to follow strict rules when it comes to informing customers of their services – from showing correct interest rates for current accounts, using accurate promotional materials online and within branches, to accurately displaying the right locations and opening times.
The competition regulator said Barclays failed to keep information on interest rates up to date for overdrafts on two of its webpages, while the Bank of Ireland listed incorrect details of branch locations through open banking, as well as wrong information about some current account charges.
It added that HSBC failed to publish information about the maximum amount it can charge customers for overdrafts in all the places it should have done and showed out of date information relating to interest rates for their business account overdrafts on one of its webpages.
Meanwhile, Lloyds Banking Group was found to have published incorrect service quality rankings relating to personal and business current accounts in leaflets and branch posters and failed to keep information in relation to interest rates up to date for one of its overdrafts on one of its webpages.
CMA also said that Metro Bank overcharged 92 customers for entering an unarranged overdrafts, while NatWest did not update records following branch and ATM closures and also listed incorrect interest rates for small business loans when sharing information with independent price comparison tools.
Read more: Irish central bank fines AIB a record amount over mortgages scandal.
According to CMA, all six banks have confirmed they are making changes to their operations to prevent further breaches – ranging from destroying out-of-date promotional materials, to updating internal checklists and retraining staff. Metro Bank has also refunded the customers affected.
Adam Land, senior director at the CMA, said these high street banks must get their act together as they have let their customers down, some of whom will receive refunds.
“We all have a right to expect up-to-date and correct information when making important decisions about our finances,” Land stressed. “It’s therefore very disappointing that these six major banks have failed to uphold rules that have been in place for the last five years. We will remain vigilant to ensure the rules are followed.”
CMA has been enforcing the Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017 for the last five years. During that time, the CMA has written publicly to banks 22 times and issued four sets of legally-binding directions – all to help banking consumers receive correct and accurate information. CMA said that, to date, customers have received more than £47 million in refunds for breaches of the said order.
