New figures from the British Bankers' Association have revealed that the UK banking sector has made a strong commitment to financial inclusion, increasing the number of consumers being brought into the financial system.
The latest British Bankers’ Association (BBA) statistics show that the industry has set up, on average, just over 162,000 basic bank accounts per quarter since April 2003, the majority of which have been opened by individuals who were previously unbanked.
The third quarter of this year saw a net total (accounts opened less accounts closed) of 140,202 Post Office-accessible accounts opened and 34,183 existing accounts upgraded to fuller-featured accounts. Since the launch of Universal Banking in April 2003, this means that a net total of 2.11 million Post Office-accessible accounts have been opened and more than 200,000 of these upgraded.
Based on BBA research, which shows that 51% of customers who open a basic bank account were previously unbanked, a net total of almost 1.1 million basic bank accounts have now been opened by previously unbanked customers. This demonstrates significant progress towards halving the number of adults in households without access to a bank account, based on a figure of 2.8 million people in April 2003.
Banks were offering basic accounts accessible through branches, mobile branches and ATMs well before the advent of Universal Banking. A net total of 661,519 such accounts have been opened and 184,052 upgraded since April 2003, with the total number of these accounts currently standing at 3.96 million.
We approach the chancellor’s pre-budget report, confident that the provision of basic bank accounts will be recognized as a serious contribution to the shared goal with government of improving financial inclusion, noted Ian Mullen, chief executive of the BBA.