We have sent an information request to the largest banks and building societies.
This follows our announcement[1] of a data exercise to investigate account closures.
Firms have until 25 August 2023 to provide information on:
- the number of customers that have been terminated
- the number of customers suspended
- the number of customers denied services
- the reasons for all of the above
- the number of complaints banks have received on this issue
This will include asking if accounts have been closed because of expressions of political or other opinions.
We’re asking about both personal and business customers, including pawn brokers, charities and political parties. We will analyse the results and provide an initial assessment by mid-September.
We’re undertaking this work to better understand the scale of account closures and the reasons behind them. We will share our analysis with the Chancellor.
We are also actively engaging the largest payments firms on this topic.