Guidance

SME banking 2002 behavioural undertakings: directions to banks

Directions issued by the CMA to First Trust Bank and HSBC, to ensure they comply with specific undertakings on banking services for SMEs.

• From: Competition and Markets Authority
• Published: 22 October 2014

Documents

Directions to First Trust Bank

PDF, 203 KB, 5 pages

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Directions to HSBC Bank

PDF, 221 KB, 5 pages

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Details

In 2002, First Trust Bank and HSBC, among others, agreed that they would no longer (except for in specific circumstances) make a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customer open or maintain a business current account in order to get a business loan. This practice is commonly known as ‘bundling’ and was prevented by the behavioural undertakings.

Following an investigation, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) concluded that these 2 banks had breached the behavioural undertakings. The CMA issued these banks with written directions designed to improve their compliance with the behavioural undertakings.

The CMA’s report on compliance with the 2002 behavioural undertakings is also available.

More information is in the CMA press notice from 22 October 2014.

Published 22 October 2014