Thursday 5 July 2012

Basic bank account, one (small) step forward

Earlier this week, the European Parliament adopted a resolution urging the commission to legislate on universal access to a basic payment account for the 10% of EU citizens who still do not have one. In particular, the baisc account should be
- less expensive than any other options offered by the bank;
- open to anyone with no income requirements and no obligation to purchase additional products.
As we already said, it doesn't seem that "less expensive than other options" here means free: a feature which casts some doubts on the foreseeable impact of the (should-it-come) measure.