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| Bank accounts 'not working well' | Bank accounts 'not working well' |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Personal current accounts are not working well for consumers, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has said. | Personal current accounts are not working well for consumers, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has said. |
| In a report, the regulator said much of the banks' revenues in this £8bn industry were "derived opaquely". | |
| The OFT said 81% of income came from charges levied on customers with insufficient funds in their accounts and from interest payments. | The OFT said 81% of income came from charges levied on customers with insufficient funds in their accounts and from interest payments. |
| In addition, many customers did not know how much they pay in bank charges, the report said. | In addition, many customers did not know how much they pay in bank charges, the report said. |
| The report also found that more than three-quarters of customers did not know the interest rate of their current account. | |
| The OFT said that the complexity and lack of transparency of current accounts made it hard for customers to compare accounts from different banks. | |
| As a result, just 6% of customers surveyed by the OFT had switched accounts in the past 12 months. | |
| John Fingleton, chief executive at the OFT, said: "Personal current accounts are a vital gateway to effective participation in the economy. But this market is not serving consumers well." |