LONDON (Standard&Poor's) Oct. 22, 2015--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that the Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) retail banking investigation will not affect our counterparty credit ratings on U.K. banks. Today, the CMA published its preliminary findings into its retail banking market investigation, and has not recommended significant structural changes to the industry. Nevertheless, the report has highlighted the underlying lack of switching in both retail and small business banking and has made a number of recommendations to encourage customers to shop around. We expect competitive pressure within U.K. retail and small business banking to increase in the coming few years, independently of the effects of possible final remedies emerging from the CMA investigation. However, we see
