The Financial Conduct Authority has unveiled plans designed to encourage greater competition in the business banking sector.

The regulator plans to ban banks from stopping business customers using other banks on future transactions and will also stop institutions from using league tables in a way that inflates their own position when pitching to clients.

Christopher Woolard, director of strategy and competition at the FCA, said the regulator wants firms “to compete on the merits, not by restricting clients’ choice on future transactions [or] drawing misleading comparisons with competitors’ performance”.