A working paper on the bank levy and corporation tax surcharge will also be published by the end of February followed, by the end of March, by an addendum to our provisional findings on capital requirements – following work to understand how differences in capital requirements for mortgage lending affect competition in retail banking.

Alasdair Smith, Chairman of the retail banking investigation, commented:

“Retail banking affects nearly every business and consumer in the UK, so this investigation and the measures that result from it are of vital importance to the whole economy.

“Our provisional findings identified a number of competition problems in both personal current account and small and medium-sized enterprise banking

“We published an initial list of possible remedies, and we are pleased that the consultation has generated a lively debate about how best to tackle the problems we have identified.

“A number of new suggestions have been made, including proposals aimed at achieving better outcomes for current account customers with overdrafts and the CMA wants to ensure that there is enough time to hear from interested parties and consider the options properly.

“We therefore expect that an extension will be necessary to give us a bit more time for analysis and consultation.

“However, we remain committed to concluding this investigation as quickly and efficiently as possible.”