We made this general modification by consent (the 2009 waiver) available only to providers of personal current accounts with overdraft facilities (the firms).
In light of the Supreme Court’s judgment on 25 November 2009 in the bank charges test case the Financial Services Authority (FSA) can confirm that its waiver has now lapsed.
The waiver was granted during the test case so firms did not have to deal with complaints about unauthorised overdraft charges in the eight-week-period required under FSA rules while the outcome of the court case remained unclear.
Firms can now resume processing consumers’ complaints in accordance with the FSA’s complaint handling rules.
We offered the firms a modification of certain rules set out in the Dispute Resolution manual (DISP) in the format contained in the July 2009 directions below. This follows on from the 2007 waiver which ended on 26 July 2008 and the 2008 waiver, which ended on 26 July 2009. The 2009 waiver lapsed on 25 November 2009 following the Supreme Court judgment in the bank charges test case.
2007 waiver direction [PDF]
2008 waiver direction - monthly reporting* [PDF]
2008 waiver direction - quarterly reporting* [PDF]
July 2009 waiver direction - monthly reporting* [PDF]
July 2009 waiver direction - quarterly reporting* [PDF]
In summary, the main effect of the July 2009 waiver was to continue the suspension of certain time limits in DISP for the duration of the waiver as they apply to certain types of complaints. These are complaints received by firms about the level and fairness of charges applied to the accounts of customers who seek to make payments for which they do not have available funds in the account and whose overdrafts have not been agreed by the firm in advance.
The versions are the same, except the 10 largest firms (whom we have notified) are required to report management information to us monthly (see Condition 13 (10) & Annex 1 in the waiver direction) – while the smaller firms are required to report quarterly.
Firms were (while this waiver was in force) not required to resolve complaints about certain unauthorised overdrafts charges within the time limits set out in our rules while the waiver is in place. With the expiry of the waiver on 25 November 2009 firms are required to handle the complaints within the time limits set out in our rules.
