The Competition Commission, the UK’s anti-trust agency, is to extend its current investigation into the provision of services for small firms by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
RBS is the largest provider of banking services to UK small businesses. The Commission believes that it may account for as much as one quarter of the UK SME market since its acquisition of NatWest Bank in early 2000. By definition a 25% share of a specific market amounts to a scale monopoly.
The investigation was initiated following a report on the four major UK clearing banks (Lloyds TSB, Barclays, RBS-NatWest and HSBC) which concluded that they have been over-charging small companies across a range of banking services.
A possible result of the Commission’s investigation would be a recommendation to the Department of Trade and Industry that RBS should be asked to divest itself of some of its SME operations.
Business Europe
