Part 7 of the Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017 (the Order) requires banks to set a Monthly Maximum Charge (MMC) in relation to unarranged overdraft charges. Providers cannot charge customers more than the MMC in any given month. Providers must say what their MMC is each time they mention unarranged overdraft charges in product literature.

Part 8 of the Order requires banks to disclose the representative cost in Equivalent Annual Rate (EAR) terms of their overdrafts and in Annual Percentage Rate (APR) terms for their loans in the way set out in the Order.

Part 9 of the Order requires that banks offer a price and eligibility tool which will enable SMEs to obtain an indicative price quote and indication of their eligibility for unsecured loans and standard tariff unsecured business overdrafts.

NatWest breached the Order by failing to:

• either provide the MMC, or to provide the correct MMC to around 104,800 customers in three separate breaches (Part 7). The longest breach lasted from 16 June 2023 to 2 April 2024.

• include the Representative EAR in letters to 66,765 SME customers which included an offer to renew an overdraft between May 2021 and February 2024 (Part 8)

• continuously offer the price and eligibility tool defined in the Order on four occasions (Part 9). The longest breach was between at least 1 May 2023 until 5 July 2024 and affected around 200 SMEs per month

This letter sets out our concerns and what NatWest did to put things right.