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The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has sent letters to Barclays and Lloyds after it found the two banks had breached open banking provisions.
According to the CMA, the two banks breached the open banking provisions of its Retail Banking Market Investigation Order when they published inaccurate information through open banking APIs on several occasions.
Under the retail banking order, the largest banks are required to make available “accurate, comprehensive, and up to date” product and service information, which then enables third-party apps and websites to provide personalised services to their users.
Barclays provided incorrect information 13 times, according to the letter. These included providing incorrect indicative overdraft fees, listing incorrect values for international payments, and showing incorrect non-sterling transaction fees. It also overstated the number of ATMs available to customers by around 200 throughout three months in 2021.
Lloyds was found in breach of the order ten times, ranging from providing incorrect bank branch data, to over-stating the number of ATMs, to showing an incorrect description of its platinum credit interest rate.
“Failure to make continuously available accurate, comprehensive and up to date information on products and services can mean that consumers take wrong decisions and they may therefore choose financial products or services which are not best suited to their needs,” the CMA said in the letters.
Although both banks said the correct information was available elsewhere, often more prominently than the incorrect information, the CMA said it remains “concerned with the nature and extent of these breaches”.
Barclays and Lloyds took voluntary steps to fix these issues.
For instance, Barclays has introduced manual controls that check the accuracy of the data published every month and set up training for staff on the requirements of compliance for Open Banking APIs.
Lloyds has also introduced additional compliance training and implemented improved frequency monitoring controls to ensure continued ongoing compliance.
The CMA decided against initiating formal enforcement actions “at this time”, due to the “comprehensive nature” of the voluntary actions taken by the banks.
According to the CMA website, this is the first time the competition watchdog took notes of open banking API breaches.
