The UK's Competitions and Markets Authority is set to unveil measures later today to help people understand bank charges and switch current accounts, in a move that Britain's start-up lenders hope will erode the dominance of the "big four" high street banks. The Financial Times reports that so-called "challenger" banks - such as start-up online lenders - have been pushing the CMA to stop lenders advertising current accounts as free when they can involve hidden costs, such as fees for using debit cards abroad. More than 600 bank branches have closed across the United Kingdom over the past year, with rural areas the worst affected, the BBC reports. Wales, Scotland and south-west England lost the most per capita. RBS made the biggest cut to its branch network, with 166 closures, followed by HSBC with 146. Over the past decade there have been 3000 closures in the UK. HSBC has announced 850 job cuts in the United Kingdom, Finextra reports. The cuts are the first of a planned three-year reduction of 8000 jobs in the UK and 50,000 worldwide, which the bank hopes will reduce expenses by US$5 billion a year. Branch numbers will be cut by 20 per cent and IT operations will move to India and China. Consumer groups in Spain and Portugal say lenders should pay borrowers money when mortgage rates drop below zero as banks in both countries typically tie interest rates on mortgages to the euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor. The rate has slipped below zero, but the vast majority of mortgage holders are still paying interest, because Euribor hasn't dropped enough to wipe out the banks' spreads of 50 to 75 bps. But lenders are nonetheless rewriting new mortgage contracts to warn homeowners that they could never profit from subzero rates, reports the WSJ.