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  1. Point in time
    2019-12-18

BCOBS 7.7 Publication of information about current accounts

How frequently must information be published?

BCOBS 7.7.1R
  1. (1)

    1The information published under the rules specified in (2) must be published in respect of each current account measurement period on or before the publication date immediately following the end of that current account measurement period as set out in the table below.

    Current account measurement period

    Publication date

    the period beginning on 1 January and ending on 31 March

    15 May

    the period beginning on 1 April and ending on 30 June

    15 August

    the period beginning on 1 July and ending on 30 September

    15 November

    the period beginning on 1 October and ending on 31 December

    15 February
  2. (2)

    The rules are:

    1. (a)

      BCOBS 7.3.5R (information about the speed of the account opening process);

    2. (b)

      BCOBS 7.4.1R (information about the time taken to replace a lost, stolen or stopped debit card);

    3. (c)

      BCOBS 7.6.1R (information about operational and security resilience); and

    4. (d)

      BCOBS 7.6.3R (complaints).

  3. (3)

    The information and statements published under the rules specified in (4) must be published and kept up-to-date.

  4. (4)

    The rules are:

    1. (a)

      BCOBS 7.3.1R (information needed to open a current account);

    2. (b)

      BCOBS 7.3.3R (information about how an account may be opened); and

    3. (c)

      BCOBS 7.5.1R and 7.5.2R (information about the availability of certain services and helplines).

How must information be published?

BCOBS 7.7.2R
  1. (1)

    1A firm to which this chapter applies must:

    1. (a)

      publish on its website the information and statements which this chapter requires it to publish;

    2. (b)

      ensure that the information and statements are easily accessible by a banking customer or a potential banking customer; and

    3. (c)

      notify the FCA of the website location where the information and statements are published, no later than the day of their publication.

  2. (2)

    A firm to which this chapter applies must include the following statement at the head of the webpage on which it publishes information and statements under the rules specified in BCOBS 7.7.1R(2) and 7.7.1R(4)(c): “The Financial Conduct Authority requires us to publish the following information about our [personal/business] current accounts:”.

  3. (3)

    A firm must make the information and statements published in accordance with this chapter publicly available free of charge by means of an application programming interface, if it is a firm:

    1. (a)

      to which this chapter applies;

    2. (b)

      which is subject to the provisions of either or both of:

      1. (i)

        article 13 (release of service quality indicators) of the Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017; and

      2. (ii)

        regulations 69(2)(a) and 70(2)(a) of the Payment Services Regulations; and

    3. (c)

      which uses an application programming interface for the purposes of a provision specified in (b).

  4. (4)

    A firm to which (3) applies must:

    1. (a)

      ensure that the application programming interface it uses for the purposes of (3) is itself made publicly available free of charge; and

    2. (b)

      if it is a firm which is subject to article 13 (release of service quality indicators) of the Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017, use the Open Banking FCA Service Metrics API Specification v.1.0.0, or a substantially similar API, to make information and statements available for the purposes of (3).3

  5. (5)

    A firm which is subject to article 13 (release of service quality indicators) of the Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017 must:

    1. (a)

      on the webpage on which it publishes information under that article, include a link to information which it is required to publish under the rules specified in BCOBS 7.7.1R(2) and 7.7.1R(4)(c); and

    2. (b)

      on the webpage on which it publishes information under the rules specified in BCOBS 7.7.1R(2) and 7.7.1R(4)(c), include a link to information which it is required to publish under that article.

BCOBS 7.7.3G
  1. (1)

    1Firms should publish information and statements under this chapter on their websites. The FCA would view the information and statements as “easily accessible” if the information and statements, or a link to the webpage(s) on which the information and statements are published, are prominently displayed on the firm’s or the brand’s homepage for personal current accounts or, as the case may be, business current accounts.

  2. (2)

    A firm may publish the information required by BCOBS 7.3.1R and BCOBS 7.3.3R(1) to (3) on the same webpage as it publishes other information about the accounts in question (see BCOBS 7.3.4G(2)). But the information which is to be published in the format of the other Tables in Part 2 of BCOBS 7 Annex 1R2 should appear on one webpage (that is, one webpage for personal current accounts, and one for business current accounts) and in the order set out in that Part of that Annex.

  3. (3)

    Firms may notify the FCA of the webpages on which they publish information under this chapter by sending a link to the relevant webpages to retailbanking@fca.org.uk.

  4. (4)

    A firm which is required to publish information under article 13 of the Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017 (that is, the service quality indicators required by the Competition and Markets Authority) may wish to publish information under this chapter alongside information published under that Order. If so, the firm should ensure that a reader of the relevant webpage would not infer from the wording or position of the statement required by BCOBS 7.7.2R(2) that the FCA has required the firm to publish the information which that Order requires the firm to publish.

  5. (5)

    Article 13 of the Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017 requires certain firms to use an application programming interface (“API”) to publish the service quality indicators specified by the Competition and Markets Authority. Regulations 69 and 70 of the Payment Services Regulations require payment service providers to “communicate securely” with payment initiation service providers and account information service providers in accordance with the regulatory technical standards adopted under Article 98 of the Payment Services Directive; firms might use an API for that purpose.

  6. (6)

    Where a firm uses an API for the purposes of article 13 of that Order or, if article 13 of that Order does not apply to it, for the purposes of regulations 69 and 70 of the Payment Services Regulations, BCOBS 7.7.2R requires the firm to make information and statements published under this chapter also available through an API; both the API and the information and statements made available through it should be publicly available and free of charge. Firms that are not subject to the Order or to those provisions of the Payment Services Regulations are, however, free to choose to make the information or statements published under this chapter available by API.