Banking

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has today announced it will help make current accounts more open and competitive by developing a range of prompts and alerts for customers to review their bank account choices and overdraft use.

Just over 1% of the 70 million active current accounts in the UK were switched in the first nine months of this year – although thousands more people switched banks than in the same period in 2015.

Eligibility checks for travel insurance sold as part of packaged bank accounts have improved after the introduction of stricter regulations, according to the financial watchdog, but more must be done to improve checks for other forms of insurance.

The last bastions of decent interest rates - high interest accounts - are disappearing fast. Lloyds, First Direct, HSBC, M&S and TSB have all followed Santander's lead and decided to cut their rates, either immediately or in the next few months. Plus Halifax has also slashed its monthly reward.

Three of the country's best-paying current accounts will dramatically cut the interest and rewards they pay millions of customers early next year, MoneySavingExpert.com can reveal, as banks continue to slash headline rates on their top accounts.

The number of complaints lodged against banks and other financial services firms fell by 2.6% between January and June this year compared with the previous six months, according to figures from the financial watchdog – and complaints about current accounts dropped 10%.

A pioneering voice recognition security system introduced by First Direct is failing to recognise some account-holders, with a number of customers left furious after being wrongly locked out of their accounts.

Fraud procedures at Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland have been placed under review after a MoneySavingExpert.com investigation revealed lost and stolen contactless cards can be used by crooks months after they're cancelled – with some banks failing to spot dodgy payments.

Consumer group Which? has filed a ‘super-complaint’ with the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) demanding banks do more to help customers who've lost money after being tricked by con-men into making a bank transfer.