Bacs welcomes latest move to simplify account opening process for small businesses
The organisation behind the Current Account Switch Service, Bacs Payment Schemes Limited (Bacs), has welcomed the announcement by industry body, UK Finance, that the account opening process has been made simpler for small business owners.
The move means that account providers will now require the same basic set of information from new small business customers looking to open or switch an account.
Working with 18 business bank account providers, UK Finance has created an online guide, including a streamlined checklist, outlining the essential details and documents that most small businesses will need when applying to open an account.
This comes in response to The Competition & Markets Authority’s (CMA) investigation into the retail banking market, which identified that the account opening process was a barrier to switching for some small and medium-sized businesses.
With the UK’s flagship Current Account Switch Service having made it simpler than ever for SMEs to switch banking provider, today’s announcement is another positive development in stimulating competition across the market.
Anne Pieckielon, Bacs’ director of product and strategy, said:
“As operators of the Current Account Switch Service, we welcome today’s announcement and believe it is another important step towards simplifying the account opening and switching process.
“We know that small business owners are busy enough without the need to deal with further layers of time-consuming admin which, in many cases, could deter some from getting the very best deal from their business account.
“We have worked hard to build a service which makes it simple and stress-free to switch business accounts, and we are pleased to see that another barrier has now been removed. Putting the power back into the hands of small business owners can help stimulate competition and create a market which works for all.”