Banks will be forced to send alerts to customers going into unarranged overdraft and inform them of a grace period, after a report found lenders make £1.2bn a year from charges. The change was one of many recommended in a report released this morning, August 9th, by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The report introduces specific measures to benefit unarranged overdraft users, who make up around 25 percent of all personal current account customers, and small businesses. These changes could save customers up to £180 per year on average if they typically go overdrawn for one or two weeks every month. The CMA have requested the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to research overdraft alerts and grace periods to maximise their effectiveness. Further measures proposed to make it easier for customer is to switch accounts include increasing the scope of services the Current Account Switch Service (CASS) has to offer. As part of the report banks are required to implement open banking by early 2018. This will enable customers to take more control of their funds and compare products on the basis of their own data and accounts through a single digital app.....Read more here