LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s competition watchdog has blocked Virgin Money from forcing small business owners without a business account to open one to access emergency COVID-19 loans.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it had stopped Virgin Money’s Clydesdale Bank arm from ‘bundling’ business accounts with loans for personal account customers.
Clydesdale has voluntarily written to all 167 affected customers, including some Yorkshire Bank customers, informing them they are not required to retain their business accounts, the CMA said.
Last year rival Lloyds was stopped by the CMA for similar treatment of customers.
(Reporting by Iain Withers; editing by Jason Neely)
