Bank Charges And Self-Regulation

EDM number 1663 in 1992-93, proposed by Greg Pope on 23/03/1993.

That this House notes with concern the practice of some of the major banks of charging customers exorbitant amounts of money for writing and informing them that they are overdrawn; believes that this practice causes great amounts of distress as well as making the financial problems of those customers more acute; further believes that many of the victims of this practice are people on fixed incomes such as pensioners, and that as such this practice is morally indefensible, recognises that self-regulation of banks has been a failure in stopping this kind of sharp practice; and therefore calls on the Government to appoint an independent regulator of banks along the lines of the regulators of privatised utilies, to lay down enforceable guidelines of best practice for banks and allow badly treated customers a means of redress.

This motion has been signed by a total of 131 MPs.