UK Competition Authority Removes Part 6 of Retail Banking Market Investigation Order

Following its consultation earlier this year, the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority has published its final decision to vary the Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017 by removing Part 6 of the Order, which governs automatic enrollment in personal current account alerts. Part 6 required providers of personal current account services to establish a system of alerts to their customers notifying them of specified information, including that their account has exceeded a pre-agreed limit. The CMA considers that the rules introduced by the Financial Conduct Authority, which come into force on December 18, 2019, on consumer overdraft alerts achieves similar ends, making Part 6 of the Order unnecessary. The final decision:

• removes Part 6 of the Order;
• describes the FCA's rules;
• sets out the compliance requirements for breaches of Part 6 of the Order, which will continue after the FCA's rules come into force so that providers can undertake their final compliance reporting under Part 6; and
• clarifies that providers remain under an obligation to report to the CMA any breaches of Part 6 that are discovered after the FCA's rules have come into force.

View the final decision.

View the variation order.

View details of the CMA's Review of the Retail Banking Market Investigation Order.