Financial Services Bill

My hon. Friend is right. This is part of the problem that relates to the point that I made on new clause 9. Until there is greater awareness in the market of the charges being imposed by banks and it is easier for customers to swap between banks, it is likely that the charging structure will remain uncompetitive. As part of enhancing competition in the banking market, we need more transparency and more competition. In our White Paper, "From crisis to confidence: plan for sound banking", we talk about some of the mechanisms that we could use to increase transparency and consider some of the initiatives taken in the US, where mortgage companies are required to produce information on charges in a standardised form that can be uploaded into a website to enable people to compare mortgage providers. A similar remedy might be appropriate in this market. More work needs to be done in this area. A better functioning market would be an aid to reaching a voluntary agreement, but we should make it clear to participants that legislative solutions are a possibility if they do not make progress. We have also proposed that responsibility for consumer credit should shift from the OFT to a new consumer protection agency, which would bring the regulation of bank accounts within one home—at the moment, there is a split depending on whether an account is in credit or overdrawn. Our reforms would make it easier to bring the control of bank accounts within the remit of one body rather than two, which might make it easier to resolve this issue. Work is needed on both how to achieve a satisfactory resolution of the issue of unfair overdraft charges and how to increase transparency in the market and obtain a better deal for consumers.