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(Adds Payment Systems Regulator comment)
By Huw Jones
LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - Allowing customers to taketheir bank account number with them would encourage more Britonsto switch lenders, Britain's financial regulator said onThursday.
Such flexibility has long been a feature of the mobile phonemarket where customers keep their telephone number when theyshop around rival providers.
The idea is being discussed to help boost competition inhigh street banking which is dominated by the "Big Five" banks,Lloyds, RBS, HSBC, Barclays and Santander.
Banks have said account number "portability" would be costlybut the idea now has the support of the Financial ConductAuthority (FCA).
"The FCA found that being able to keep bank account detailsincreases consumer confidence in the bank account switchingprocess," it said in a statement.
"A significant number of individual and small businesscustomers would be more likely to switch if they could retaintheir account details," it said.
Customers can already move accounts to another bank withinseven days, though they have to take a new account number.
The new Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), set up by thegovernment to increase competition and innovation in paymentsystems, will consider the FCA's evidence.
It said the FCA review, as well as emerging findings fromthe Competition and Markets Authority's investigation intoretail banking, will be on the agenda of its new industry forum.
"We will take that into account about what do we really need for the payments system to deliver going forward, and accountportability is clearly in the mix there," PSR Managing DirectorHannah Nixon told Reuters.
"The question for me is: is that the best way for deliveringparticular outcomes? I honestly don't know the answer today andthat is work the industry needs to do," Nixon said.
UK junior finance minister Andrea Leadsom has been asupporter of account number portability, telling Reuters lastmonth it could be introduced in stages.
"The FCA also found that account number portability couldmake switching accounts even easier. We expect the new PaymentSystems Regulator to consider these findings as part of itswider work programme," Leadsom said in a statement on Thursday.
The FCA said more could be done in the meantime to improveswitching, such as targeted marketing campaigns.
"We now expect the banks to deliver these improvementswithout delay, and we have given the regulators powers to forceappropriate action should they fail," Leadsom said.
(Editing by Keith Weir and David Clarke)
