Many banks get all clear over bank charges
November 10, 2008 by admin
Filed under News, News-Banking
Following recent hearings in the next stage of the overdraft bank charge High Court case, many of the UK’s banks have received a clean bill of health from the presiding judge, who has said that most customers will not be able to use the law to challenge the terms that the banks in question have used. However, he has not given the all clear to Intelligent Finance or NatWest. And is still looking at the terms laid out by these banks.
The Office of Fair Trading is still awaiting legal confirmation over its right to assess whether the bank charges levied by the banks are fair. Many claims have remained frozen in the courts since summer of 2007 when the decision to take the matter to the High Court was made, and following the recent decision many are likely to remain frozen for some time to come.
An official from the Consumer Action Group said: “Some banks will be breathing a sigh of relief as the judge appears to have decided that these charges were not penalties under common law.”
The British Banker’s Association said: “The question of penalties was one of the claims made by the OFT which triggered the initial court case. Now we have had this judgement we are keen to move on to the next stage as quickly as possible.”
An official from the Office of Fair Trading stated: “This is another staging post in a complex legal process. We are progressing our investigation as quickly as possible and are in continuing discussion with the banks about our provisional views on the issue of fairness.”
