(Adds Monzo comment)
LONDON, June 22 (Reuters) - Britain's competition watchdog
has warned banks Monzo, NatWest, Virgin Money
and Bank of Ireland over breaching rules requiring them to send
banking transaction histories to former account holders.
In total, nearly 150,000 customers were not provided with
the necessary information quickly enough, the Competition and
Markets Authority said on Tuesday.
Monzo was responsible for the bulk of the breach, accounting
for over 143,000 former customers.
Under Britain's competition rules, lenders must send
customers a transaction history within 40 days of a customer or
small business closing their accounts, with at least 95% sent
within 10 working days.
The CMA said the four banks were now sending out the
required information and it would take further action if the
failures were repeated.
A spokesperson for Monzo said: "Since we identified the
issue and reported it to the CMA in February 2021, we've fixed
the problem and are telling affected customers that we can send
them their transaction history if they'd like.
"This was an admin error, and we've also said sorry to the
customers involved. Up until now, we've sent a full transaction
history to any customer who has asked for it directly."
(Reporting by Iain Withers, Editing by Lawrence White and
Catherine Evans)
Natwest (NWG)