Banks cannot afford to lose their battle with the OFT over bank charges, says Stuart McNeill
In April this year judgment was handed down in the first part of the eagerly awaited test case brought by the OFT against the UK's leading high street banks seeking a ruling on the fairness of their unauthorised overdraft charges (Office of Fair Trading v Abbey National plc and others [2008] EWHC 875 (Comm), [2008] All ER (D) 349 (Apr)). Eight banks had asked the OFT to bring the test case, partly to limit the huge number of cases that were being taken by aggrieved customers in county courts all over the UK—which were stayed pending the decision—and partly to try to bring certainty to a revenue stream estimated to gross them around £2.6bn in 2006. Although the initial press coverage suggests that the OFT was successful, this is only part of the story.
The test case
The test case sought a ruling on whether the charges, both historical and current, were: (i) caught by the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (SI 1999/2083) (the Regulations); and
