22-07-2025

The AdC is launching a call for information to collect comments from stakeholders, such as consumers, public entities, firms in the banking sector and other relevant sectors, potential entrants, and consumer and business associations, who are invited to respond to the AdC's questions until September 24, 2025.

The call for information aims at identifying (i) any difficulties in comparing banking or financial products and possible ways to improve product comparability; (ii) any challenges in the process of contracting banking or financial products and how that process might be streamlined; (iii) any obstacle in switching banks and ways to facilitate switching; (iv) any barriers to entry and expansion in the sector, including business strategies that may limit competition.

Retail banking is a sector prone to barriers to switching, due to the potential difficulties consumers face in searching for and comparing different banking or financial products, as well as potential frictions involved in account switching. In situations where banks have an immobile customer base, competitive pressure weakens, and incentives to offer higher deposit remuneration diminish. In Portugal, interest rates on new term deposits with maturity up to one year for households remain less attractive than the euro average and the term deposits offerings are particularly less competitive among the five largest banks.

It is therefore crucial to assess the prevalence of switching costs in the Portuguese retail banking sector and to identify the main contributing factors to propose, if necessary, measures to lower barriers to switching.

13-02-2026

Following the call for information conducted by the AdC until 24 September 2025, the AdC received 10 submissions, including from the Bank of Portugal (the national central bank for Portugal). Overall, these contributions highlighted constraints that may affect consumers’ freedom of choice and hinder switching banks.

In this context, the contributions received justified moving forward with a more in-depth assessment of the identified constraints, leading to the study Consumer mobility in retail banking in Portugal (the “Study”).

This Study, now under public consultation until 5 March 2026, presents a set of 16 recommendations addressed to the Portuguese legislator and to the Bank of Portugal, aimed at reducing the costs identified in relation to search, comparison and switching of banking products in Portugal.