Banks costing customers millions by withholding data

Cardeo believes Britain’s 14.5 million interest-paying cardholders are losing millions, if not billions, of pounds a year, at a time when their finances are already crippled by the cost of living crisis. It is calling on the Government to step in by modernising current regulations to make sure consumers have full access to their own account information.

According to Cardeo’s analysis, many banks and major credit card providers are preventing the easy transfer of data by failing to make “summary box information” available in user-friendly digital formats, while also failing to enable consumers to access this data through other providers’ apps (known as Third Party Providers or TPPs).

Cardeo has found that more than 60% of the UK’s credit card market is failing to provide consumers with their full account data, despite it being a regulatory requirement under the Payment Services Regulations and open banking regime.

Cardeo’s analysis has shown that major banks and card providers are still only sharing account information on PDF versions of old paper statements, are making only partial data available to customers via their chosen TPP and have delayed implementation plans with unclear delivery dates for becoming compliant with the regulations, or have no plans to provide the data at all.

This widespread non-compliance is leaving the UK’s 14.5 million credit consumers without the transparency that would allow them to understand their financial situation and make informed borrowing and repayment decisions – and take advantage of new alternative solutions available from fintechs as a result of the UK’s new open banking regime.

Meanwhile, TPPs including fintechs are unable to use this data to offer new money saving services to consumers.

Cardeo co-founder and chief executive, Gavin Shuker, said:

“Despite the rapid increase in online and digital banking, many card providers have not adequately converted the presentation of summary box information for digital accounts, often only making PDF statements available, rather than displaying them in a more visible manner.

“We’ve tried talking to every single provider in the industry and found little willingness to engage on the issue – it seems the big players are more interested in data protectionism and defending their bottom lines than helping customers get the best deal.

“Whatever the reason is, as long as the big card providers don’t play by the rules, customers will continue to pay over the odds.”

Rules for presenting critical credit card statement data were designed 20 years ago in a predigital age, but many of the major card providers have failed to properly digitise the sharing of this information with customers, often still relying on inaccessible PDFs or outdated paper statements.

Cardeo believes many providers are failing to live up to regulatory expectations by preventing consumers from accessing their account information through a fintech or other third-party provider (TPP). This is despite being required to make this data accessible under the Open Banking framework and The Payment Services Regulations 2017 (PSR).

Cardeo alone could save a typical credit card customer £90 every year through its smart credit card management and automated repayment facility. With 14.5 million interest-paying credit cardholders in the UK, the potential savings for consumers in unnecessary charges are enormous.

The major card providers do not appear motivated to change their current approach – and certainly not voluntarily.

Cardeo has identified a very simple and minor change the Government could make to existing regulations that would immediately resolve this issue.

The firm is calling on the Government to modernise regulations so that consumers have the same right to receive summary box information via a nominated TTP as they already have to receive the information directly from their provider.

This information is already in place making this change a minor one; a change which could be included in the scope of the Financial Services and Markets Bill.

Gavin Shuker continued:

“The Government has championed the UK’s open banking regime, and rightly sees it as a critical way to ensuring greater competition for consumers – our proposal to modernise the rules would ensure all credit card customers can take full advantage of services being offered by fintech and other open banking providers in one simple step.

“We’d urge the Government to seriously consider this small change that creates big advantages for consumers, by forcing credit card issuers to comply with the law.”

Notes to the editor

1. Cardeo CEO and co-founder, Gavin Shuker is available for interview as required. Details below.

2. Cardeo is a smart credit card management app that allows users to hold onto their cards yet save money. Users can manage their accounts in one place, set goals for repayments, and pay them back in the cheapest way, allowing them to get out of debt faster.

3. Cardeo uses open banking and is a proud graduate of Tech Nation Fintech 4.0, the Government backed scaleup programme.

4. To find out more, explore cardeo.com

5. Cardeo is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority as an account information services provider, number 940438.

6. Cardeo is a registered trademark of Cardeo Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, number 12512807.

For further information

communications@cardeo.com