Page 293 - Bank Case Studies

Moreover, TSB argued that the stranglehold of the high

street banks had changed little since 2008, with the

challenger banks managing to wrest only a 1% share of

current accounts from the dominant players. It also found

that only 2% of bank customers had switched their accounts

via the new seven-day switching service launched in

September 2013 in an attempt to head off a competition

investigation. (7)

In this febrile environment TSB was however, growing

rapidly, adding an average of 1,000 accounts each day and

pushing its total of customer deposits beyond £30bn. But it

is still restricted by this lack of competition in the British

high-street banking industry.

"If you look at the number of people switching, it is

down this year, and it was down last year,"

said Pester.

Pester had repeatedly urged the CMA to adopt proposals

that would make it easier for customers to know how much

they were paying for a bank account. Moreover, he raised
concerns that Brexit would distract from attempts to

increase competition at a time when the number of bank
customers switching accounts across the industry had fallen

by 10%