Small firms should shop around for better banking deals following the Competition Commission’s decision to lift price controls on the UK’s four largest banks, says lobby group Forum of Private Business.

The controls were imposed in 2003, along with other measures to boost competitiveness. The temporary “transitional undertakings”, requiring banks to offer smaller-business customers a minimum interest rate of 2.5 percentage points below the base rate and/or free money transmissions, have been removed to allow them to compete more freely for customers. Measures that were introduced to make switching between banks easier, make prices more transparent and prevent grouping together different products and services, such as making loans conditional on opening personal accounts, have been retained.

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