A chance for Financial Planners and other professionals in the industry to give their views on failings in the cash savings market ends today.

The FCA recently outlined problems in the sector and said it was considering intervening to make it more competitive for the benefit of consumers.
The regulator launched a consultation, as its probe continued, but this finishes today.
Christopher Woolard, director of policy, risk and research at the FCA, said:
"Our preliminary view is that while some aspects of the cash savings market are working well competition does not appear to be working in the interest of many consumers.
"In this market there is a minority of very active, very engaged consumers who regularly change provider to get the best deal. We want to look more closely at what is inhibiting the majority of consumers from getting better deals."
The analysis so far has been primarily focused on easy access accounts and no-term Cash ISA accounts – estimated to account for around two thirds of total cash savings balances held by firms in its sample.

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The main problems the report identified were:

• Large numbers of consumers are not actively shopping around for savings accounts or providers. In response, providers, on average, pay lower interest rates on older accounts than on accounts opened more recently, such that consumers who remain with the same account for long periods of time will tend to receive lower rates on their savings.
• This means that, although more active consumers do drive competition which results in higher rates on newer accounts, switching does not drive competition to the benefit of customers that remain with the same account for longer periods.
• Many consumers hold their savings with their Personal Current Account (PCA) provider, so the largest PCA providers appear to be able to generate in aggregate a significant share of the savings market (in particular in relation to easy-access products) despite, on average, offering interest rates that are materially below those offered by other providers.
• Low levels of switching by consumers and the high proportion of savings balances held by PCA providers mean that challenger banks face difficulties in developing substantial market shares in the cash savings market at a similar cost to the larger providers. Challenger banks must offer comparatively higher interest rates to attract and retain their customers and so customer deposits are a relatively more expensive source of funding for challengers than for the larger providers.