Shadow chancellor John McDonnell welcomes CMA report despite no big bank break-up
In a surprising move, chancellor John McDonnell said he “welcomed” the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) report today, despite the CMA’s decision to rule out forcing the break-up of banks.
Former Labour leader Ed Miliband had pushed for a total restructuring of the banking sector, pledging in 2014 to break up the biggest British banks in favour of creating at least two new competitors.
But McDonnell made no mention of break-ups in his response to the CMA today, saying only that he supported “many of their recommendations around more transparency for customers”.
“Clearly more has to be done to better help inform and support customers to switch as there is a worryingly low level of personal bank account switching currently taking place,” he said, adding: “It is vitally important that we have a banking sector that is not self-serving.”