Banks in the spotlight

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is to conduct a market study into banking for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and will also be taking on work reviewing personal current accounts which was started by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) report Harris & Co accountants Northampton, the specialist small business accountants.

Among the competition issues under consideration, CMA will look at the banking providers operating in the SME sector; how the dynamics of competition operate; and the way that personal and SME customers consume banking services, including levels of customer engagement with banking providers.

The review of personal current accounts will consider the impact of the introduction of the new seven-day Current Account Switching Service, the planned divestments by Lloyds Banking Group and the Royal Bank of Scotland of parts of their retail banking businesses, and the forthcoming establishment of the Payment Systems Regulator.

The CMA will publish the findings of its work on SME banking and personal current accounts this summer.

It will also release its provisional decision on whether or not the statutory criteria for making a market investigation reference are met, with a final decision on whether or not to conduct such an investigation likely during autumn 2014.