Banks 'must move money quicker'

[TonkaToys]

From BBC Website: Banks 'must move money quicker'

Banks must speed up electronic money transfers made by telephone and over the internet, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has said.
At present, it can take four days for transfers to reach their destination. Banks make an estimated £25m a year in interest during the transfer time.

The OFT has given the banks six months to come up with a way to transfer the money within one day.

The speed of direct debits and credits will be unaffected by the OFT move.

...

Later this year the OFT will investigate the amount of time it takes banks to clear cheques.

Consumer groups are hoping that the OFT will decide that the three to five days it takes to clear a cheque is too long.

"Cheques must not become the Cinderella of the bank payments system," Ed Mayo, National Consumer Council chief executive said.

"A donkey could deliver cheques faster than banks can put money into customers' accounts."

So does this mean that the consumer / retailer will benefit from having their money to hand faster and that the bank will not make money from the interest on the transfer...
or does it mean that the consumer / retailer will lose in the long run because the banks will compensate for the loss of interest by introducing / increasing charges?


PS: the donkey statement is class!

[KukriKhan]

We had that here, too, until the mid-90's. As you project: the banks' lost revenue has been made up in 'fees' being assessed for everything that was once free.

[el_slapper]

We had that here, too, until the mid-90's. As you project: the banks' lost revenue has been made up in 'fees' being assessed for everything that was once free.

Yeah, "fees" are really a plague. When I entered my job as programmer in the banking system, my first customer(a bank, therefore) did clearly state that the big thing for the 5 next years would be "fees upon any service to the customer". Difficult to be clearer. That was in 2000.

[bmolsson]

Banks are theives with the law on their side.....