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Newsroom & speeches
78/01
09 July 2001
Responding to the DeAnne Julius led review of banking services codes, Economic Secretary Ruth Kelly said:
“The report contains a number of useful recommendations directed at significantly improving competition and increasing the levels of customer service in banking services.
“We are therefore asking the bodies to whom the recommendations are directed to respond to these proposals. We look forward to the industry responding positively to the challenges that have been set.”
DeAnne Julius said:
“While we found that there is much to commend about the current system of self-regulation through voluntary codes, we believe there are several areas where more should be done to help bank customers and sharpen competition.
“Our Group developed its recommendations after an extensive consultation process. We believe the recommendations would help the market for banking services work more effectively and thereby deliver greater consumer benefits.”
The Banking Services Consumer Codes Review Group has set out twelve recommendations to improve the benefits to consumers from the industries’ voluntary codes of conduct. The recommendations include:
The Government is asking those to whom the recommendations are directed to respond to the report by 30 September.
1. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown announced the setting up of the Banking Consumer Codes Review group as part of the Government response to the Cruickshank Report on Competition in UK Banking on 4 August 2000 (HM Treasury press release 98/00).
2. The then Economic Secretary, Melanie Johnson, announced on 8 November that DeAnne Julius would chair the Banking Services Consumer Codes Review Group (HM Treasury press release 128/00). The remaining eight members of the Group were announced on 23 November 2000 (HM Treasury press release 137/00). They were:
| Michelle Childs | (Consumers’ Association) |
| Adrian Coles | (Building Societies Association) |
| Janet Connor | (Abbey National) |
| Gerard Lemos | (Lemos and Crane) |
| Stan Mendham | (Forum for Private Business) |
| Brian Morris | (British Bankers’ Association) |
| Teresa Perchard | (National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux) |
| Neil Simpson | (The Mail on Sunday) |
| All members served on the Group in a personal capacity. | |
4. Don Cruickshank’s report Competition in UK Banking: A Report to the Chancellor of the Exchequer was published on 20 March 2000. It is available on the Banking Review website at the link below together with press releases issued by the Banking review team.
5. The Government Response to the Cruickshank report can be found by following the link below. Printed copies are available from the Treasury Public Enquiry Unit on 020 7270 4558.
6. Media enquiries should be addressed to Simon Moyse at the Treasury press office on 020 7270 4420 or 07713 260987. Comments on the report should be sent to Chris Thompson, Home Financial Services, HM Treasury, Allington Towers, 19 Allington Street, London SW1E 5EB.
The report is available below in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer you can download the software free of charge from the Adobe website.
For alternative ways to read PDF documents and further information on website accessibility visit the HM Treasury accessibility page.
