FCA PROPOSES CHANGES TO EASY ACCESS CASH SAVINGS MARKET

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced plans to reform the easy access cash savings market (City AM). The FCA's proposed new rules would require all firms to set a single easy access rate (SEAR) across all easy access accounts. This would apply after the initial 12-month period in which firms will still be able to offer multiple introductory rates, after which they would need to choose one SEAR for easy access cash savings accounts, and another for their easy access cash savings ISAs.

Eric Leenders, Managing Director, Personal Finance at UK Finance said:

?The banking and finance industry has already implemented a number of remedies to improve competition in the cash savings market, helping savers to shop around and find the best possible deal. These include communicating more clearly with customers about the rates they receive, faster Cash ISA transfers and enhanced customer prompts before a rate is reduced.

?Banking business depends on there being an adequate margin between what a provider pays for its deposit funding and what it charges for the loans it makes available. Regulatory intervention that increases the overall cost of deposit funding for providers will, in general, result in providers having to raise the cost of loans they make available to house purchasers and other borrowers.

?UK Finance and its members will consider these proposals carefully and will continue to work closely with the FCA to ensure fair outcomes for all customers, including those in vulnerable circumstances and borrowers, whilst avoiding unintended consequences impacting innovation and competition in the cash savings market.?

EU COMMISSION PRESIDENT SAYS "ALL WILL CHANGE" IN FINANCIAL SERVICES

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has warned that ?all will change? in financial services should the UK diverge from European Union regulations post-Brexit (Telegraph, p3). Additionally, Luis de Guindos, Vice President of the European Central Bank, told a conference in Amsterdam yesterday that collaborative talks were necessary to keep financial markets ?open? after the UK leaves the EU (Politico).

NEWS IN BRIEF

House price growth exceeded expectations in 2019, rising by four per cent, according to Halifax (The i, p41).

United States president Donald Trump announced in a press conference yesterday that the US will be imposing additional sanctions on Iran ( Reuters).

The productivity slump seen in the last ten years could continue into the next decade, according to the Office for National Statistics, with the potential to threaten pay rises (Telegraph, B4, £) reports.

Retail sales fell by 0.1 per cent last year, the first annual decline since 1995, according to figures published by the British Retail Consortium (BBC News).

WHAT THE COMMENTATORS SAY

Writing in the Financial Times, Huw van Steenis, chair of the sustainable finance committee at UBS and former adviser to Bank of England governor Mark Carney, looks at the factors driving the banking sector's move to take climate risks more seriously - critically, the costs increasingly associated with ignoring climate change. The author notes that this has been influenced by trends such as ?investor activism?, and climate stress tests led by the Bank of England. To conclude, Mr van Steenis believes that the cost-benefit analysis of getting a strong hand on tackling the financial risks of climate change - versus doing nothing - will weigh heavily in favour of the benefits.

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Nick West, Principal, Head of Learning Innovation and Delivery, UK Finance, talks about some of the courses available to book now from our 2020 training schedule.