The Bank of Italia has urged banks and the Post Office to remove the barriers to opening a basic account
The central bank is calling for regulatory and IT changes to ensure easier access to basic bank accounts, which are essential for the financial inclusion of vulnerable customers.
Key points
A lack of information, limited awareness and unjustified resistance: basic accounts are less widespread in Italia than in other countries, and the Bank of Italy, in a call that closely resembles a warning, is asking banks, Poste Italiane and other payment service providers to promote awareness and uptake of these accounts and to facilitate access to them, “particularly for the most vulnerable customers”. In doing so, the Bank emphasises that analyses show that “access to this product is sometimes unjustifiably hindered or discouraged”.
What is a basic account?
The basic account, introduced by a 1992 EU directive, is a current account offering essential banking services, designed to make banking accessible to everyone; it has a reduced annual fee and is free of charge for those below a certain income threshold. This is an important step towards financial inclusion, but its widespread adoption has encountered many obstacles.
Now, in its communication, the Bank of Italy also specifies a deadline for compliance: 30 November this year, by which time the Compliance and Internal Audit departments “must have completed their checks to ensure that structures, procedures and practices are fully consistent with regulatory requirements and this Bank’s expectations, so as to ensure that all obstacles to access to the basic account are definitively removed”.
Limited distribution
The Institute points out that “the uptake of basic accounts amongst consumers is still limited, even compared with other European Union countries” and that there are “numerous cases in which access to the product is unjustifiably hindered or discouraged”.
Specifically, the main issues that have emerged include the failure to include the basic account in the catalogue of products on offer, or the incompleteness of the essential services associated with it, as well as staff’s lack of knowledge about the product and “unjustified resistance” towards applicants who are potentially entitled to it (for example, non-residents legally residing in the EU, individuals generally classified as belonging to categories considered to be at high risk of money laundering, and individuals in precarious financial and asset situations)”; issues also highlighted by consumers and trade associations, who also point to a lack of transparency regarding the reasons for refusal and the offering of alternative products that are more expensive for the customer.
