The Financial Ombudsman has announced that banking complaints have risen by 7% in the last 6 months. Overall, the total of complaints about PPI claims fell, but complaints about other financial products rose by 3%, with banking increasing by 7% and insurers raising by 1%.
Barclays Bank is set to close 11 of their cash ISAs (Individual Savings Accounts), meaning 2.3 million customers will be moved onto a simplified product range.
The simplification of their ISA range means that 1.6 million savers will be put on a worse interest rate than before, although 740,000 will be put on the same or a better rate.
HSBC are to repay £218m of interest charges to some of their UK loan customers who received insufficient paperwork.
Under the Consumer Credit Act, lenders are required to use a customers annual statement to provide information about the option of making overpayments on a loan.
The UK banking industry is set to face an inquiry after a study by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that the current account and SME lending markets “lack effective competition”.
At the moment, the largest four banks own more than 77% of the current account market and more than 80% of small business lending.
Internet security company, Kaspersky Lab, has claimed to have found evidence of cyber-criminals stealing over £400,000 from 190 customers of a European bank.
The attack is thought to have happened in January 2014, mainly affecting Turkish and Italian banking customers, who are believed to have lost between 1,700 euros and 39,000 euros each.
Credit Suisse and the Yorkshire Building Society have been fined by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for the use of “misleading” marketing when promoting an investment product.
Credit Suisse was fined £2.4m, whilst Yorkshire Building Society received a smaller fine of £1.5m.
More than 600,000 people have switched to a different current account provider in the last 6 months, following the introduction of a new scheme aimed at making switching banks easier.
The scheme enforces new rules that guarantee current account holders to be able to switch providers within seven days, as opposed to previously where it could take up to 30 days.
The Co-op bank has apologised to its 4.7 million customers after announcing annual losses of £1.3bn for 2013.
Although large losses were expected, the announcement has raised fresh concerns over the future of the bank as it does not expect to make a profit in 2014 or 2015.
The Royal bank of Scotland is set to close 44 UK branches, with 14 of those being classed as the “last banks in town.” The closures have been announced despite the bank making a pledge in 2010 not to close its branches.
Account holders will now be able to pay both friends and traders using only their mobile phone numbers from 29th April, it has been announced.
The Payments Council has confirmed that consumers will no longer need to exchange bank details, so long as both parties have registered for the free service.
