CMA criticises banks over Open Banking breaches

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has criticised Lloyds and Barclays for mistakes made when giving information to price comparison websites, potentially misleading customers and breaking open banking rules.

The CMA outlined a number of instances where the two banks breached the 2017 Retail Banking Market Investigation Order in relation to open APIs.

The CMA said both lenders had breached the rules by providing the wrong details across areas including transaction fees and overdraft fees. In two open letters, the CMA said that Barclays had breached the rules 13 times, while there were 10 examples involving Lloyds.

In a statement the CMA said “Failure to make continuously available accurate, comprehensive and up to date information on products and services can mean that consumers take wrong decisions and they may therefore choose financial products or services which are not best suited to their needs.”

The CMA said it would not be pursuing further action against the firms due to ‘comprehensive’ steps taken by both firms to address the issues.