We investigated switching in the personal current account market to look at whether it was likely to influence competition among banks and affect unfair charges. Our research showed that there is still a great reluctance among consumers to switch account providers. There also appear to be real problems with the switching process.
This undermines efforts to improve switching as a way of driving competition in the banking sector. Until people are prepared to ‘vote with their feet’, competitive pressures on banks will be weaker than they should be.
