Bank Services

(asked on 1st June 2020) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of households in the UK without a bank account.


Answered by
John Glen Portrait
John Glen
Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This question was answered on 8th June 2020

The Treasury does not make assessments of the number of people who do not have a bank account. However, in 2017, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published the results of the Financial Lives Survey which found that 1.3 million UK adults were unbanked, i.e. have no current account or alternative e-money account.

The Financial Lives Survey report contains further information on the characteristics of the unbanked. The report analyses survey results across the four nations of the UK, the nine regions of England, and by rural and urban areas. The FCA intend to repeat the Financial Lives Survey on a regular basis in future. The report can be found here:

https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/research/financial-lives-consumers-across-uk.pdf

The Government believes that individuals, regardless of their background or income, should have access to useful and affordable financial products and services, including a bank account.

Basic bank accounts are a key financial inclusion policy. They provide people with a way of receiving income, whether that be salary, pension, benefits or tax credits and enable people to manage their money on a day-to-day basis effectively, securely and confidently.

A basic bank account is fee-free for all everyday banking services and has no overdraft facility. The 9 largest personal current account providers in the UK are legally required to offer fee-free basic bank accounts to customers who do not have a bank account in the UK or who are ineligible for a bank’s standard current account.

The Treasury publishes data on basic bank accounts annually. The December 2019 publication shows that in total there are nearly 7.5 million basic bank accounts open in the UK.

In the current context of COVID-19, banks, building societies, the Post Office and credit unions are working closely with the Treasury, the FCA and the Prudential Regulation Authority to maintain branch access for essential services, including opening a bank account if an individual is unbanked, while balancing the needs of their customers with the safety and welfare of staff. The Government and the FCA urge customers to use alternatives to branches where possible and only visit branches where absolutely necessary.

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