On October 14, 2016, the UK's Competition & Markets Authority published proposals for the implementation of certain remedies to counter the adverse effects on competition which were identified in the CMA's final report on the retail banking market investigation. The CMA published its final report into the supply of retail banking services to personal current account customers and small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK in August 2016. In that report, the CMA made several recommendations, including the introduction of Open Banking, a single digital application that allows customers to manage their accounts with multiple providers. In response to that recommendation, the nine providers identified in the CMA's report have made proposals for the structure, membership, governance and funding arrangements of the Implementation Entity. It is proposed, amongst other things, that the Implementation Entity's Steering Group would comprise the nine providers as well as representatives of FinTechs, smaller "challenger" banks and payment service providers. Andrew Pinder has already been appointed as Implementation Trustee and will oversee the work of the Implementation Entity. Comments on the Implementation Entity proposals were due by October 21, 2016.
The final report also stipulated a service quality remedy which will require banks to collect and publish service quality information to enable customers to compare providers more easily. The CMA committed to conducting research to inform the requirements that will be imposed on banks for the presentation of service quality information. The CMA has published for consultation, proposed visual representations of service quality indicators. The CMA has also published the report undertaken by Research Works. The CMA is requesting comments on the representations and the Research Works report by October 31, 2016.
The CMA also published the British Bankers' Association proposals, developed with and on behalf of the banks, to implement standardized business current account opening procedures. The CMA will require banks with at least 20,000 active business current accounts to agree and adopt standardized core information and evidence requirements for SMEs seeking to open a business current account. The proposal covers, amongst other things, core standard information and evidence requirements to open an account, the categories of relevant SMEs, and an implementation timetable which sets a final implementation time of Q1 2018.
The statutory deadline for implementation of the CMA's remedies is February 8, 2017. The CMA will be consulting later this year on its draft Retail Banking Order and Undertakings. The Implementation Entity proposals are available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5800ddf3e5274a67eb000000/Implementation_entity_plans_and_proposals.pdf , the proposed presentations of service quality indicators is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/58078d4fed915d4b72000018/potential-standard-presentation-note.pdf , the research report is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5800de6ced915d4b75000000/research-works-presentation- of-qualitative-research-findings.pdf , the BBA's proposals on BACs is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/58078d6aed915d4b75000012/proposal-from-BBA-to-standardise-BCAopening_procedures.pdf and further information on the investigation is available at: https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/review-ofbanking-for-small-and-medium-sized-businesses-smes-in-the-uk#remedies-implementation.
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