Nine million switches
The UK’s Current Account Switch Service (CASS) will always be special to me, responsibility for the launch and guardian of the service for the first five years of its operation is an experience that I will always cherish.
After almost 9 million switches since the service was launched in 2013 it is clear that the service continues to perform well.
In its annual report Pay.UK have confirmed that the Current Account Switch Service achieved all its regulatory KPIs in 2022 and that the total number of current accounts switched across the year was 986,956.
The Service has now facilitated almost 9 million switches since its launch in 2013.
Regulatory KPIs
Pay.UK have announced that the Current Account Switch Service successfully met all of its regulatory KPIs in 2022:
- 99% of switches were completed within 7 working days.
- Customer satisfaction averaged 91% across the year.
- 76% of consumers said they were aware of the Service, surpassing the overall awareness target of 75%.
Ten facts about Personal Current Accounts in the UK
Away from these three headline performance measures Pay.UK’s annual report shares ten wider facts about the the Personal Current Account market in the UK:
#1: The Personal Current Account (PCA) market in 2021 is 21% less concentrated than in 2010.
#2: Customer inertia remains high – 80% of people have not changed the way they view their bank or started using other providers as a result of the pandemic.
#3: The Current Account Switch Service continues to work well for switchers, with high awareness (76% Q1 2021) and satisfaction (93% Q1 2021).
#4: Multi-banking is a small but active subset of the market: 33% of customers multibank, with 9% having three or more accounts.
#5: The COVID pandemic has accelerated a digital channel shift for end users. 24% of end users reduced their use of branches while 32% increased their use of mobile banking.
#6: 81% of SME switchers reported that they had used their overdraft more and had gone further into their overdraft (76%) now compared to before the pandemic; two thirds of consumer switchers reported the same.
#7: The older the consumers are, the less likely they are to consider switching. Just over half (57%) of the non-considerer subgroup were aged 45 or older. In case of SMEs it was found that the smaller the business, the less likely they are to switch.
#8: The importance of an overdraft facility in terms of account selection was much higher for SMEs with better overdraft terms, both unarranged (74%) and arranged (70%).
#9: More than half of consumers and SMEs felt that that they would not be able to switch whilst using their overdraft. In fact, frequent overdraft users were seen as more likely to be unaware that they could switch whilst in a negative balance (64%) when compared to infrequent arranged overdraft users (29%).
#10: The total number of current accounts switched in 2022 was 986,956 – taking the total number of switches since the launch of the Service in 2013 to 8.8 million switches.
You’ll find Pay.UK’s 2022 Current Account Switch Service annal report here.