The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has written to Santander regarding breaches by Santander UK of part two of the Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017.
The second part of the Order requires the nine largest banks in Great Britain and Northern Ireland to “ensure accurate, comprehensive and up to date Read-only product and reference information is continuously available through the UK’s Open Banking system”, the CMA wrote in its letter.
Santander’s breaches, which were self-reported by the bank, included failing to keep information published through Open Banking up to date and a failure to publish some information at all.
The letter from Dipesh Shah, director, markets at the CMA, revealed that 106 data fields either contained out-of-date information or had information missing, while the longest failure was around seven years.
An example given in the letter is that some bank branches were listed as being open when they were closed, and some interest rates which should have been published were not.
In the letter, Shah wrote that the provision of accurate and up-to-date information to consumers and small businesses “is a fundamental requirement under the Order”.
Shah added that Santander UK’s breaches “may have prevented consumers and small businesses from making informed choices about which product and provider is best for them”.
The CMA has concluded that no further formal enforcement action is required on the basis that Santander has taken steps to end the breaches and prevent a recurrence of them.
“However, the CMA will monitor Santander’s future compliance closely,” Shah added.
Action taken by Santander includes simplifying the way it presents information through Open Banking to reduce the scope for incorrect or out-of-date information being published, and “enhancements to its processes”, such as a new standardised template that sets out the data fields within scope of the Order.
The bank has also said it will introduce regular “stock-checks” for overall accuracy of data and improvements to its annual reporting process.
