New consumer banking rights - Empowering

The EU directive that gives everyone living in Europe a right to access to a bank account must be welcomed. That it will give consumers a better opportunity to compare bank fees will make it even more welcome. How easy it will be to avail of the most advantageous rates remains to be seen.

That it will help those now trying to build a new life in a new country — immigrants — enjoy the security of a bank account makes the directive even more welcome.

About 100,000 Irish adults do not have bank accounts which may not seems strange in a country where not so very long ago a former taoiseach asserted that he did not feel the need for one but it makes so much of modern life more difficult, and risky, than it need be.

When signed into law by the European Parliament, EU states will have two years to incorporate the directive into national legislaion. This is an important, empowering development for hundreds of thousands of people right across the EU so every effort should be made to bring the change forward as quickly as is possible.