Open Banking: Will It Impact Bank Account Switching?

Over time, BACS Account Switching stats can provide useful insights into the impact Open Banking has by measuring the volume of movement between UK current account providers.

The latest stats cover Q1 2017 and reveal the following:

- Nationwide Building Society is the clear winner with a net gain of 38,000 thanks to heavy promotion, offering high interest rates and innovative product features
- TSB are a distant second with 11,750 gained due to high interest offers
- Barclays, Lloyds, Clydesdale, Co-operative, Natwest and RBS lost 65,370 accounts as a result of bad publicity and competition
- 12 Low volume participants including Starling Bank and Virgin Money gained 239 accounts suggesting they are struggling to gain traction.

Further BACS research from July 2017, has discovered:

- 91% of customers are happy with their current account provider which will make it difficult for newcomers to gain traction.
- Customers regularly utilising overdrafts or with high credit balances are not receiving the best deals. Targeting these customer segments could be a smart move
- As Nationwide has shown, product innovation and promotion is proving the best route to increased market share

It will be interesting to monitor these stats and trends over the next few months and years to see the impact Open Banking has on them. I’ll keep you posted.

Here is a link to the BACS website where you can find stats and market insights: https://www.bacs.co.uk/resources/factsandfigures/pages/factsandfigures.aspx