13 March 2012

ECON Committee published draft report with recommendations to the Commission on access to basic banking services

The Rapporteur also requests the Commission to submit, by the end of 2012, on the basis of Article 114 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, a legislative proposal or proposals ensuring access to basic banking services to all consumers living in the Union, following the detailed recommendations set out below.

Recommendations:

7. The right to access a basic bank account should apply irrespective of the consumer's nationality or place of residence in the Union. Criteria such as the level or regularity of income, employment, credit history, level of indebtedness, individual situation regarding bankruptcy or future activity of the account should not be taken into account for the opening a basic bank account. Access to a basic bank account should under no circumstances be made conditional on the purchase of other products or services, for instance insurance.

8. The legislation should be applied without prejudice to Union rules, in particular providers’ obligation to terminate the basic bank account contract in exceptional circumstances under relevant Union or national legislation, such as legislation on money laundering. The account may also be closed in case of imposture, abuse of confidence or falsification of documents.

9. Member States should be obliged to ensure that due diligence procedures do not lead to discriminatory practices, for instance against marginalised groups, migrants, ethnic or religious minorities or people with no fixed address. Therefore, special consideration should be given to the means by which people with no fixed address can satisfy due diligence requirements and national best practices should be taken into account in order to effectively guarantee access to a core range of essential payment services.

10. To facilitate this, basic bank accounts should be classified as low-risk products in accordance with Article 3(3) of Commission Directive 2006/70/EC implementing Directive 2005/60; providers should be obliged to apply simplified customer due diligence requirements and the Commission should aim to further harmonise national interpretations of anti-money laundering rules to ensure that it can no longer be used to deny access to a basic bank account.

Full own initiative report

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