The review includes a look at how personal current accounts are paid for, the possible impact of technological development such as Open Banking, and changes to payment services due to the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2).

The report is also critical of the FCA’s work on overdrafts and the regulator has already expressed concerns that some potentially vulnerable people are paying significantly more for their current accounts through unarranged overdraft charges and fees.

It also shows that most current account customers contribute to their bank’s profits, but a small proportion pay significantly more than others, around 10% of customers generate between a third and a half of all contributions to profits from current accounts.

Andrew Bailey, chief executive at the FCA, said that this was an important piece of work to help it understand the complexities of the retail banking market and how it might develop.

“It provides more evidence that there is no such thing as free banking.

“In particular, this evidence will inform the work we are doing on overdrafts, so we can fully understand the potential effects of the significant action we are considering taking in this market.”

The FCA has collected information from 45 firms across the range of the market to inform the review, including major banks, small retail banks, building societies, specialist lenders and new digital banks.