July 23, 2014

CMA. Bank regulators have stopped “the risky”, like SMEs, from being able to compete fairly for bank credit.

Sir, John Kay with respect to personal current account banking writes and conclude rightly in that “In banking too much competition is as bad as too little” July 23.

But in reference to banks and competition, I cannot but remind you of that regulators, by allowing banks to have much less capital when lending to “the infallible” than when lending to “the risky”, have hindered all those perceived as risky to be able to compete for bank credit on fair terms. In fact, on those borrowers already burdened by being perceived as risky, they have loaded up tons of extra weights.

And that Sir has an impact that is much worse than anything that could happen on the level of the service of personal checking accounts… and so that is what UK´s Competition and Markets Authority should really prioritize.