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Bank charge test case to start on Thursday

Wednesday, 16 January 2008

The OFT's test case on unauthorised bank default charges will start on Thursday 17 January at 10.30am at the International Dispute Resolution Centre.

The case was due to begin on Wednesday at the International Dispute Resolution Centre, but was postponed due to the Judge's prior commitments running over.

The purpose of the application is to get a ruling on whether the provisions of the UTCCRs (Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations) that deal with unfairness, apply to unauthorised overdraft charges, and will not address whether terms and conditions or specific charges of individual banks are unfair.

The OFT said, however, that it continued to analyse information supplied by the banks. It added that further information on the investigation into unfairness would be published after the judgment had been delivered and OFT had had time to consider any implications.

The application for the declaration is brought against Abbey National plc, Barclays Bank plc, Clydesdale Bank plc, HBOS plc, HSBC Bank plc, Lloyds TSB Bank plc, Nationwide Building Society and Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc.

The hearing is expected to last three weeks with judgment to follow some time later.

The OFT has published more information about the case and has a website section that explains more about the work on bank personal current accounts, available at the link below.

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