Review of Part 6 of the Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017

The CMA has launched a review of Part 6 of the Order relating to unarranged overdraft alerts.

Case timetable

Date Action
4 December 2019 Publish Final Decision
12 September 2019 Publish and consult on Provisional Decision
1 July 2019 Review launched

Published in line with the guidance on the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) approach to the variation and termination of merger monopoly and market undertakings and orders. Any revisions made to the timetable will be published on this webpage

Final decision

4 December 2019: The CMA has today published its final decision to vary the Order and remove Part 6. It has also published the Variation Order and Explanatory Note and a Notice of Variation.

Responses to consultation on the provisional decision

4 December 2019: The CMA has published non-confidential versions of interested parties’ responses to the CMA’s provisional decision.

Provisional decision

12 September 2019: The CMA has today published its provisional decision to vary the Order and remove Part 6. The CMA is seeking comments on its provisional decision to vary the Order, and on the Variation Order, and the draft Explanatory Note. The CMA will consider the comments and evidence provided before reaching its final decision.

Those who wish to respond should provide their views, supported with relevant evidence where possible, in writing to the CMA either by email or by post to the address given below by 5pm on 15 October 2019.

Responses to request for stakeholder views

12 September 2019: The CMA has published non-confidential versions of interested parties’ responses to the CMA’s request for stakeholder views.

Review group appointed

8 July 2019: The CMA appointed the following Panel group members to the Review of Part 6 of the Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017.

Kirstin Baker (Chair), Robin Cohen and Anne Fletcher.

Group disclosure

Decision to carry out a review

1 July 2019: The CMA has decided to conduct a review of Part 6 of the Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017 (the Order). Part 6 of the Order delivers the programme of overdraft alerts with grace periods for PCA customers.

The FCA announced on 18 December 2018 rules on overdraft alerts (PDF, 3.25MB), which enter into force on 18 December 2019. Further, on 7 June 2019 the FCA announced reforms to the way banks charge for overdrafts. We consider that from 18 December 2019 Part 6 of the Order will be superseded. The CMA anticipated the FCA taking responsibility for overdraft alerts at the time that it published its Market Investigation report. Following confirmation from the FCA that it proposes to make its reforms, the CMA has now taken the decision to launch this review on the grounds that there is a realistic prospect of finding that a change of circumstances has taken place.

The CMA is asking interested parties for their views on whether publication of the FCA’s proposals constitutes a change of circumstances which mean that, when they come into effect, Part 6 of the Order will be effectively superseded.

Any comments, plus supporting evidence, should be sent in writing to the CMA by 5pm on Monday 22 July. We will then consider the views and evidence received before reaching a provisional decision.

Contact

Retail Banking Order review team
Competition and Markets Authority
The Cabot
25 Cabot Square
London
E14 4QZ

Email: remedies.reviews@cma.gov.uk

Published 1 July 2019
Last updated 4 December 2019 + show all updates
  1. Published: Final decision, Variation Order, Notice of Variation and responses to consultation on provisional decision.

  2. Provisional decision and responses to request for stakeholder views published.

  3. First published.