BBA Consumer Panel will deliver real benefits for bank customers

[Legal Beagles]

Banks and consumer groups are to work together to deliver real change for high street banking customers, the British Bankers’ Association announces today.

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[leclerc]

Re: BBA Consumer Panel will deliver real benefits for bank customers

To quote the above this is the text from it. A lot of it, for me, appears to be stuff that they should have done a long time ago and for some reason are using a panel to actually say that they are listening to consumers. I'm afraid a lot of it was under TCF so clearly the banks and the BBA have failed miserably.

Anyway the following is what the BBA has stated:

"Banks and consumer groups are to work together to deliver real change for high street banking customers, the British Bankers’ Association announces today.
The BBA is launching a new Consumer Panel chaired by Citizens Advice Chief Executive Gillian Guy which will meet for the first time in the coming weeks.
The aim is to bring together consumer advocates, leading charities and senior bankers to identify areas where banks can improve the service they offer to customers.
The industry has already identified some areas where they want to make progress such as:

• simplifying the small print that banks use
• making savings rates easier to understand and compare
• looking at providing help to people with serious illnesses or physical disabilities to allow them to delegate to carers the ability to bank on their behalf
• helping customers with critical illnesses such as cancer before they go into arrears on mortgage re-payments
• improving access to bank branches such as providing wheelchair access to all services and installing talking ATMs

The BBA is also setting up a new Service Improvement Group of senior bankers which will drive forward implementation of the changes agreed at the Consumer Panel.
Consumer Panel Chair Gillian Guy said:
"This is a big step towards improving people's everyday experiences of the banking sector. Members of the panel will be able to bring the problems they see on the ground right to the heart of Britain's biggest banks.
"There will be some hard truths but also I hope some imagination, invention and collaboration to make banking work better for customers."
BBA Chief Executive Anthony Browne said:
"The banking industry is determined to constantly improve the service it offers to customers.
"We want to work to make banking easier to understand by looking at things like the small print and savings rates. We also want to identify issues that could cause problems for consumers in the future and work together to resolve those swiftly."
Notes to Editors

1. The members of the Consumer Panel will include:

• Chair – Gillian Guy, Citizens Advice
• Financial Services Consumer Panel – Adam Phillips, Chairman
• Step Change - Gordon Bell, CEO
• British Bankers’ Association – Anthony Browne, CEO
• Money Advice Scotland – Yvonne MacDermid, CEO
• Northern Ireland Consumer Council – Antoinette McKeown, CEO
• Age UK – Tom Wright CBE, CEO
• Money Advice Service – Caroline Rookes, CEO
• Money Advice Trust – Joanna Elson, CEO"