The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), in collaboration with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), published a report this week that chastised banks for their poor service and lack of transparency. As part of an ongoing initiative to improve financial services for both consumers and businesses, the government published a report that demands banks improve their services boosting transparency and clarifying costs.
Adam Land, Senior Director at the CMA, said that for the first time, people will be able to better compare banks and the quality of service. Making it easier to gauge your banking products should make it easier to move elsewhere when your bank falls short.
Challenger bank Tandem CEO Ricky Knox called the CMA/FCA action a big step for competition in UK banking;
“It’s crucial that customers have their voices heard and are made aware that there are other options out there.”
New rules require UK Banks to publish information on how likely customers are to recommend their services to friends and family. This also means displaying it in their branches, on their website and apps.
“People should be able to make informed decisions about who they bank with,” says Knox. “Thanks to these new measures you can walk into a bank or look on their website and easily determine the quality of their service, just like you could with a hygiene rating or reviews on TripAdvisor for a restaurant. Customer centricity is no longer just a buzzword and all banks now have to base their business on delivering great service. Challengers like Tandem have the advantage of being oriented around customer need from the start, we’re going to lead the pack.”
As previously reported, Banks must disclose how often they have had to report security breaches. The GDPR already requires all institutions to report data breaches within 72 hours of detection to the relevant regulator.
“There’s a real risk with legacy systems. People assume that the big banks are best equipped to protect their data, but in some cases it’s actually quite the opposite,” Knox adds. “There are a lot of vulnerabilities. Newer entrants don’t have these outdated structures to contend with: our systems are built from the ground up with data in mind and there aren’t the same risks there.”