The FCA has published Policy Statement 17/26: Information about current account services (PS17/26). PS17/26 provides feedback on Consultation Paper 17/24: Information about current account services (CP17/24) and sets out final rules.
The FCA’s rules will require providers of personal current accounts (PCAs) and business current accounts (BCAs) to make information about current account services available to customers. The rules seek to promote effective competition by:
- enabling customers and intermediaries to make meaningful comparisons between providers of PCAs and BCAs based on quality of service; and
- incentivising providers to improve service and performance.
Specifically, under the new rules customers will be able to find:
- how and when services and helplines are available;
- contact details for help, including for 24 hour helplines;
- how long it will take to open a current account;
- how long it will take to have a debit card replaced;
- how often the firm has had to report major operational and security incidents; and
- the level of complaints made against the firm.
CP17/24 also looked at introducing rules requiring publication of service metrics related to how long it takes to arrange to use powers of attorney. Following the feedback received, the FCA welcomes the banking industry’s agreement to coordinate the development of a voluntary industry agreement on vulnerability.
The rules will come into force on 15 August 2018. On this date, current account providers will be required to publish information on service availability, helplines, and numbers of operational and security incidents. They will have to publish a link to complaints data. From 15 February 2019, firms will also be required to publish account opening and debit card replacement metrics. To publish these metrics from this date, firms will need to start recording and measuring the time taken to open accounts and to replace a debit card from 1 October 2018.
View FCA makes it easier for people to compare bank accounts, 12 December 2017
