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The appeal by eight banks against the decision of the High Court regarding whether or not the OFT have the authority to deal with the fairness of bank charges has been thrown out. The judges also told the banks that they could not take the case to the Lords for a further appeal but it is almost certain they will ignore this and ask the House of Lords for permission to make a further appeal against this decision. The hundreds of thousands of claims frozen will remain this way until the investigation by the OFT is concluded The OFT were said to be pleased with Appeal Court ruling, they were quoted as saying “We expect to reach a final decision on fairness later this year,”One of the arguments by the banks was that the banks customers do not have protection under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations (UTCCR) the court found that consumers do have protection under the UTCCR as they are not part of the core or essential bargain between a consumer and their bank, Master of the Rolls, Sir Anthony Clarke, dismissed the appeal, he said the four Appeal Court Judges had now come to the same conclusion as High Court Judges on the issue of the OFT’s jurisdiction, he also told the banks they should now allow the OFT to decide whether the banks charges were fair or not he then dismissed their request for a further appeal. The Banks Next MoveRegardless of the High Court decision and the Appeal court agreeing with this decision the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) still believe the Regulations do not apply to bank charges, a spokesman was quoted as saying “The banks continue to believe that the Regulations do not apply to these type of charges,” “The banks will apply to the House of Lords for permission to appeal the Court of Appeal’s decision. “The banks will work with the OFT to ensure the next stages in the test case process are progressed as quickly as possible,”The CaseThe banks argument in the original High Court case was that the overdraft charges are not covered by the 1999 Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations (UCCR) the High court dismissed this claim and ruled that consumers do have protection through these regulations. The three Appeal Court Judges agreed with the High Court ruling and dismissed this claim, Sir Anthony Clarke said “We have unanimously concluded that the application should be refused,” he also said “The issues should now be resolved by an OFT assessment of fairness,”The banks requested leave to make a further appeal which Sir Anthony denied, the banks are ignoring this and applying to the House of Lords directly requesting permission for a further appeal. Many organisations and individuals who have been campaigning against the bank charges have spoken out about the ruling and the general consensus regarding the decision is the same, all agree with the High Court and Appeal Court decision and agree the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) should now be allowed to continue with their investigation. HistoryIn the Summer of 2007 the Financial Services Agency (FSA) put a waiver in place allowing the banks not to deal with all the claims that had been submitted for bank charges pending the outcome of the test case between the OFT and eight banks, also a stay was put in place on all County Court proceedings associated with the recovery of banks charges, Sir Anthony Clarke said “it is sensible that the stay on county court proceedings should remain in place until a final decision on fairness of bank charges was made. “The Deputy Head of Civil Justice has sent a letter to the County Courts inviting them to continue with the stay until a conclusion has been reached by the OFT or the House of Lords. There are around 65,000 claims on hold at County Courts in England and Wales. Consumer AdviceIf the OFT eventually rule that the charges are unfair it is estimated that banks will be paying out billions of pounds in returned bank charges. Most campaigners and companies dealing with reclaiming bank charges recommended people with excessive bank charges who have not already submitted a claim should submit one as soon as possible to ensure they are somewhere near the front of the reclaim queue it is estimated that 378,000 claims have already been and that the banks are holding a further 971,000 claimsIn 2006 the Office of Fair Trading ruled that credit card charges were unfair, since then hundreds of thousands of people have reclaimed these charges as they are not affected by the waiver put in place for the bank charges. There are Companies such as www. chargerefund. com and www. bankrebate. com willing to submit your claim on a no win no fee basis which of course means you are in a no lose situation as you only pay them if you get paidRoy Smith