Challenger Banks, CMA, and Which? weigh in on competition in banking

New City Agenda- Essay Series Launch

Our latest publication looks at the topic of competition in the banking, including the CMA’s full market investigations and what regulators and politicians can do to improve outcomes for consumers. Contributions include:

  • Alex Chisholm (CEO, CMA) discusses the reasons the PCA and SME markets were referred for full competition inquiries
  • Peter Vicary-Smith (Group CEO, Which?) describes the CMA’s inquiry as a ‘golden opportunity to fix retail banking’, and outlines the key themes and approaches that he believes should guide it
  • Paul Pester (CEO, TSB) argues that greater competition is key to culture change and ‘the only way to deliver the kind of banking customers want’
  • Benny Higgins (CEO, Tesco Bank) claims that many banks ‘get away with offering their customers a very poor deal’, before making the case that greater transparency is needed to ensure effective competition
  • Alison Robb (Group Director, People, Customer, Communication and Commercial, Nationwide) calls for a regulatory framework which promotes greater market diversity and does not ‘constrain’ the ability of building societies to compete with PLC banks

Other contributors include Anders Bouvin (UK CEO, Handelsbanken) on the importance of customer service to delivering competitive advantage; Cathy Jamieson MP (Shadow Financial Secretary) on Labour’s approach to competition; Tony Greenham (New Economics Foundation) on what problems competition cannot solve; Dominic Lindley (Financial Services expert) on whether fintech can revolutionise retail banking; and Prof Andre Spicer (Cass Business School) on the culture of retail banking.

To read the essay series, please click here