Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
NatWest and the Co-Operative Bank have been reprimanded by the competition regulator for potentially misleading customers about the quality of service they were receiving. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that both banks breached the Retail Banking Order by failing to fully inform customers about how their services and current accounts compared to rivals.
The Co-operative Bank breached the Order by failing to publish up-to-date service quality information on its website between 15th August 2022 and 3rd October 2022. The Co-operative Bank has now taken steps to end the breach and to prevent a recurrence.
The Co-operative Bank discovered this breach on 3rd October 2022. However, it only reported this to the CMA on 31 January 2023. The Co-operative Bank therefore failed to notify the CMA of the breach within the 14 days required under the Order.
Whilst NatWest breached the Order by failing to publish service quality information posters prominently in 24 NatWest branches and 2 Ulster Bank branches between 15th August 2022 and 12th January 2023. It also failed to publish posters prominently in nine NatWest branches and one Ulster Bank branch between 15th February 2023 and March/April 2023.
NatWest breached the Order by, between 1st November 2022 and 24th January 2023, publishing the interest rate for SME loans instead of the APR on one webpage for each of these three brands within its group: NatWest; Royal Bank of Scotland; Ulster Bank.
The CMA said that the failure to publish service quality information in branches and on websites may have led customers to make decisions based on outdated or incorrect information.
