FIN. TeamFCA has published a Consultation Paper (CP) on the information provided to customers about current account services. The CP was prompted by CMA’s recommendation that firms should publish objective measures of service performance for both personal current accounts (PCAs) and business current accounts (BCAs) to allow customers to effectively compare products on the market.
The CP applies to firms that accept deposits (i.e. banks and building societies) and provide payment accounts as defined by the Payment Accounts Regulations1 (typically PCAs) or BCAs that have the features of a payment account.
FCA is proposing that BCA and PCA providers publish service information on the following:
- Account opening processes and access to specified services including overdraft funds;
- Time taken to replace a lost, stolen or stopped debit card and to organise third party access to a PCA under a power of attorney;
- Service availability ( e.g. is 24-hour help is available for certain matters);
- Major operational and security incidents reported to the FCA;
- Up to date standing data (e.g. the times of day when certain services are available); and
- Service metrics (i.e. data that firms are required to measure or count every quarter).
It is hoped that these changes will promote effective competition by enabling customers to make effective comparisons between providers of and based on service, and by incentivising providers to improve service and performance.
The deadline for responses to the CP is 25 September 2017.
