CMA Challenges Transaction History Reporting By HSBC, TSB & Nationwide

The Competition and Markets Authority has criticized HSBC, Nationwide, and TSB for “significant failures” in how they report customers’ transaction histories when they move banks. These “significant failures” affect both personal and business customers.

Under the Retail Banking Order, when a small or medium-sized business (SME) with an income of less than £6.5 million changes accounts, the bank must give the SME a full payment transaction history. Rules are the same for retail buyers who want to switch banks.

The move is especially important for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which need to look at their transaction history when applying for new credit.

HSBC got the harshest reprimand from the CMA because it didn’t send about 12,200 payment transaction histories to former business account users. The CMA said this was “unacceptable.”

“The CMA considers it unacceptable that a large, regulated entity such as HSBC manifestly failed to implement an effective process to ensure that BCA (business current account) customers that closed their accounts would be provided with their Payment Transaction History in accordance with its legally binding obligations.

This failure led to breaches which have been ongoing since the Order came into force, and HSBC’s processes, systems and staff were not capable of detecting and reporting these breaches until December 2022. In addition, the inability for HSBC to determine the scale of these breaches due to the inadequacy of its systems and processes is a further concern.”

Similar reprimands were given to TSB and Nationwide for not sending payment transaction histories to more than 105,000 former business and personal account customers and about 51,000 former personal current account customers between when the rule was put in place and May of this year.

The CMA has not punished the banks because they have all taken steps to make sure they keep following the rules.