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UK: Antitrust probe won’t loosen the grip of big British banks

By  |  October 22, 2015

Britain’s biggest banks appear to have escaped being broken up by the competition watchdog which is due to publish the provisional results of an 18-month investigation into the sector on Thursday.

The Competition and Markets Authority is also expected to step back from ending free banking and instead tell banks to make it easier for customers to switch their bank accounts.

According to reports, the CMA will publish data showing that current account customers will be on average £70 a year better off by switching their accounts to another provider. Customers who use their overdrafts regularly could be £260 a year better off.

The preliminary findings are being closely watched by the big four – Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Barclays – which together control 77% of the personal current account market. That dominance is little changed despite 10 competition investigations in the last 15 or so years.

Full content: Mail Online

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