The Competition and Markets Authority is likely to extend the timetable for its investigation into the retail banking sector.
The authority will decide on the extension and its length by early March, when it will set out the timetable for publication of the final report and key milestones.
The provisional decision on remedies will not now be published during February as expected.
Alasdair Smith, chairman of the investigation, said: “Our provisional findings identified a number of competition problems in both personal current account and small and medium-sized enterprise banking.
“A number of new suggestions have been made, including proposals aimed at achieving better outcomes for current account customers with overdrafts and the CMA wants to ensure there is enough time to hear from interested parties and consider the options properly.
“We therefore expect that an extension will be necessary to give us a bit more time for analysis and consultation.”
The CMA published its provisional findings in October ahead of further work, which will lead to a final report.
In October the CMA found 57 per cent of consumers have been with their personal current account provider for more than 10 years, and 37 per cent for more than 20 years.
To tackle this inertia it has suggested, among other remedies, the requirement of better information sharing with credit reference agencies, banks and financial advisers.
But the CMA was criticised by the Treasury select committe the following month for failing to find out how much it costs a bank to run current accounts and how much savers pay for them, with one MP branding the inquiry “lazy”.
On average the CMA’s research found current account users could save £70 a year by switching.
It also found overdraft users were even less likely to switch personal current accounts than other users but heavy overdraft users in particular could save up to £260 a year if they switched.
