Little information, poor knowledge, unjustified resistance: basic accounts are less widespread in Italy than in other countries and the Bank of Italy, with an invitation that closely resembles a warning, asks banks, Poste Italiane and other payment service providers to promote awareness and dissemination and to facilitate access, “especially for the most vulnerable customers.” In doing so, the institute emphasizes that analyses show that “sometimes access to this product is unjustifiably hindered or discouraged.”
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What is the basic account
The basic account, introduced by an EU directive in 1992, is a current account that offers fundamental operations designed to make banking services accessible to everyone, has a reduced annual fee and is free below a certain income threshold. An important step for financial inclusion that has however encountered many obstacles in its spread. Now, in its communication Bankitalia also indicates a deadline for compliance: November 30 of this year, when Compliance and Internal Audit “must have completed checks on the full consistency of the arrangements, procedures and practices with regulatory provisions and the expectations of this Institute, in order to ensure the definitive removal of any obstacles to access to the basic account.”
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Limited spread
The Institute emphasizes that “the spread of the basic account among consumers is still limited, even compared to other European Union countries” and that there are “numerous cases in which access to the product is unjustifiably hindered or discouraged.” In detail, among the main problems identified are the failure to include the basic account in the catalog of offered products or the incompleteness of essential services linked to it but also poor knowledge of the product by staff and “unjustified resistance” towards applicants who potentially have the right (for example, non-resident but legally residing in the EU, subjects generally attributable to categories considered at high risk of money laundering, subjects with precarious financial and asset conditions)“; issues also reported by consumers and trade associations who also speak of lack of transparency in the reasons for refusal and offering more expensive alternative products to the customer.
Adapting IT systems
Bankitalia therefore asks, among other things, that the necessary updates be made to adapt applications and IT systems “to also manage non-ordinary information and documents (for example, provisional tax code not alphanumeric or receipt of the residence permit application) and that “specific and adequate publicity be given to the product, highlighting its free nature for vulnerable customers, on operators’ websites, on the digital channels used (for example, apps) and in premises open to the public (for example, by posting notices) and training programs be implemented for sales network staff on the characteristics of the basic account.
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