OFT Bank Charges Report To Be Published On Tuesday

Alpine_Star

The Office of Fair Trading will publish their report on bank charges at 10.30am on Tuesday 16 March.

mangle101

Is this to be 'new' information or just what we already know?

natweststaffmember

mangle101 wrote: »

Is this to be 'new' information or just what we already know?

It is most definitely new news since it is the specific date of publication of their report rather than a speculative month in the year.

Alpine_Star

mangle101 wrote: »

Is this to be 'new' information or just what we already know?

The report will follow the OFT's statement of 22 December:

''A number of options are available to secure the changes that the OFT wants to see, ranging from voluntary action to legislative change. The OFT will now discuss these issues intensively with banks, consumer groups and other organisations, with the aim of reporting on progress by the end of March 2010.''

http://www.oft.gov.uk/news/press/2009/144-09

It has been reported in The Times that future overdraft charges will be limited to £10 but I'd be surprised if that were the case:

PRESSURE GROWS FOR FAIRER COSTS
BRITAIN’s banks will come under pressure to keep unauthorised overdraft charges at about £10 when the Office of Fair Trading publishes its report on current account penalties this month, writes Kathryn Cooper.
The industry had been charging as much as £35 when cheques or direct debits bounce. However, it is understood the OFT will declare that a “fair” limit is closer to £10 — a level the government supports. While banks are under no obligation to cap their charges following the Supreme Court defeat of the OFT’s challenge against overdraft fees last year, industry sources said the statement would put pressure on banks to avoid excessive charging.
A source close to the Treasury said: “We’ve made it clear that banks need to agree a fairer and more transparent system of charges for the future. A £10 charge would be roughly right.”
One bank told The Sunday Times: “We have accepted that we will need to make some amendments to satisfy the OFT — although most of the changes will apply on new accounts rather than to existing customers. We have already brought down our charges considerably.”


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/savings/article7052219.ece

davidgmmafan

"while banks are under no obligation to cap their charges following the Supreme Court defeat of the OFT’s challenge against overdraft fees last year, industry sources said the statement would put pressure on banks to avoid excessive charging"

Therein lies the problem, a statement by a regulator which does not in fact have the power to regulate on this issue would be persuasive at best. They might as well talk about energy prices cos they can't do anything about that either.

davidgmmafan

It pains me to say I was right, see today news story. I've tried to be even-handed with the OFT because the scale of the consumer backlash against charges put them in a not win situation, but I'm afraid with this pathetic effort they're right up thier with Ofgem in the useless regulator stakes.

I'll read the report in case the story is biased but I'm not holding my breath.