European Parliament
Charles Tannock  (ECR ),
in writing
I voted against this report. While I appreciate the fact that 7 % of the EU’s adult population does not have a bank account is a troubling statistic, a wholesale imposition of an obligation on financial services providers to provide free or low cost basic payment accounts is unacceptable. This will present a significant cost to the industry, especially since the report in Recommendation 4 proposes that banks must take on the task of marketing BPAs themselves on their websites and in branches. Moreover, quite simply I do not agree that consumers should have an enforceable right to a basic payment account. What about the right of banks to choose their customers? This report – by dictating to private enterprise – essentially goes against the most basic principles of the free market which has brought so many tangible and dramatic benefits to European citizens, especially in the post-Communist countries that are so well represented in my group. I would point to the Commission’s original proposal as a far better and certainly more pragmatic solution.

