British banks about to get more consumer friendly
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Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free _Mother Jones Daily_. One of the things that keeps people from switching banks is that it’s a
pain in the ass. In Britain, they decided to do something about that: > Under orders from the U.K. government to remove barriers to > competition, large and small lenders alike have
spent two years and > a total of about £750 million ($1.2 billion) preparing to make it > possible for checking-account customers to switch banks within seven > business days.
Starting Monday, the banks will have to handle the > process of moving accounts and making sure that automatic bill > payments and money transfers are shifted seamlessly to the >
customer’s new bank > > The experiment is being closely watched not just in Britain but also > by industry officials and policy makers in the U.S., where banks > aren’t
obligated to assist customers who want to defect to a rival > institution and the switching process can drag on for more than a > month. INDUSTRY CONSULTANTS SAID THE BRITISH PROJECT
COULD BECOME A > TEMPLATE FOR BANKS IN THE U.S. AND ELSEWHERE. Uh huh. Sure it could. I’m sure that a year from now the finance lobby will have prepared a dozen white papers explaining
what a disaster this has turned out to be for British customers, and how adopting it in the U.S. would raise costs for everyone and all but destroy consumer banking. And that will be that.
After all, if banks say something would be bad for consumers, who could doubt them?