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Hi Peter. whether Retail is competitive or not is in my opinion not the issue here. The whole basis of the arguments to the Regulators by the BRC and other Retailer bodies in Europe was that interchange savings from the caps they persuaded the Regulators to implement woulod be passed back to the consumer, yet the Reagultors in their naivety did not ask for this to be tracked. The consumer is actually losing out as loyalty programmes are either scrapped or ,adjusted, by banks because of the revenue loss from interchange cuts. The Reagulator should have implemented a tracking mechanis as part of the interchange cap introduction. The big retailers have been shown to have had a benefit (see various articles by Payment Systems Europe) but have released no data on how much has been passed back to the consumer suggesting a tracking mechanism was never implemented

Do the British Retail Consortium have a tracking mechanism so they can clarify how much of the interchange savings they have made from the caps has been passed back to consumers? I look forward to that information.

Even in the branches that are remaining, there are fewer and fewer staff to actually serve customers. There seem more staff swanning around asking if you are paying in a cheque and they then point you to the new paying in machines in Lloyds branches. So far I have tried to use them 4 times and they have failed 4 times because they could not read the writing or numbers on the cheque or they were corporate cheques that 'rarely work' in those machines according to the staff. One was actually from the Lloyds Clearing Centre in Birmingham. You could not make it up

I agree with Melvin there seems to be an anomaly here and it would be interesting to know the survey structure in terms of age groups and locations

My concern with all these payments is how Regulators assess the amounts involved which seem massive and what the 'beneficiary' will do with it. Also no Regulator has yet asked for a mechanism to ensure all the interchange cuts are being passed on to the consumer and not being kept by merchants. Small businesses I understand may struggle to devise a tracking mechanism but for Tier 1 and 2 merchants it should at least be reviewed by Regulators.

This is good as there are a number of options for revamping being explored in many countries including the UK. The other side of this particular coin is getting the paranoid risk departments of banks to grant people access to internet banking. For my business Lloyds made me fill out a 23 page questionnaire and then told me my signature did not match the one they had on file(even though I had personal internet banking). When I pointed out that I had to fit my signature to teh stupid little box on the form they then lost everything and we went back to stage 1 where they sent me the link again. Not great customer service to someone who has been with them over 20 years

I await with interest to see how much of the interchange savings for merchants are passed back to the consumer. I am not aware of a tracking mechanism for this and have seen at least one Retailer led presentation which categorised this going to the botto line. We are already seeing fees intorduced and loyalty value cut and the banks are being blamed. But its not their fault. 

I agree with you Bob. It would mean cabs would have to carry less cash which must be safer. While I do not subscribe to the theory that Uber is the greatest thing since sliced bread this is a positive move from its introduction in London

I think it will be interesting when these new players are part of the current account switching service as to how many customers join them from this route and for how long. I also agree with some of the comments above regarding savings. It is interesting about the turnover of staff of some of these challengers before they even launch and also how some have left other challengers and set up on their own like this guy leaving Metro for Atom. Metro have realised they need branches and have also been innovative with e.g. drive through branches an idea the major banks apparently ditched many years ago. Its clear not all of these challengers will survive either, never mind the dinosaurs they dislike so much.

I am surprised more banks are not looking at then drive through banking idea as trialled by Metro Bank. That would be truly banking on the move. Locatio data could tell you when you are near a site offering this and you would know you do not have the drudgery (and cost) of looking for parking nearby to a branch.