Number of households without bank accounts cut by half
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Issued 20 October 2009
The Government and the Financial Inclusion Taskforce are pleased to announce
today that the shared goal to halve the number of adults living in households
without access to a bank account has been achieved.
The shared goal was agreed in December 2004 between the Government and the
banks. The latest report on access to banking by the Financial Inclusion
Taskforce shows that the number has fallen from 2 million in 2002/03 to less
than 900,000 in 2007/08.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury said:
“We welcome the announcement that this very important goal has now been
achieved. The shared goal is a great example of government, industry and third
sector partners working together to ensure that everyone can access the
financial services they need to get by day-to-day.”
Brian Pomeroy, chair of the Financial Inclusion Taskforce said:
“This is extremely good news and it means that many more people can now use
transactional banking to make and receive payments as well as holding their
money in a secure and accessible way. It is important that these gains are not
lost and the Taskforce has called on Government, the banks and the FSA to ensure
that the standards of service in bank branches are upheld and scrutinised. And
we must not lose sight of the possibilities for making further inroads into the
number of people who are unbanked.”
Notes
1. Financial inclusion is the Government’s policy to ensure that everyone has
access to appropriate financial services, enabling them to:
- manage their money on a day-to-day basis, effectively, securely and
confidently;
- plan for the future and cope with financial pressure, by managing their
families to protect against short-term variations in income and expenditure,
and to take advantage of longer-term opportunities; and
- deal effectively with financial distress, should unexpected events lead to
serious financial difficulty
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Article Published/Sorted/Amended on Scopulus 2009-10-21 13:28:45 in Economic Articles
