Main Drivers of Financial Exclusion Sample Clauses

Main Drivers of Financial Exclusion. We now consider some of the main drivers of financial exclusion. The purpose of this section is to provide a basis for an analysis, presented later in the report, of the numbers of persons without a bank account and the main reasons why they may not have an account. We discuss whether bank accounts are virtually the sole means of payment, the extent to which people are deterred from applying for or are unable to obtain accounts, and the typology of people within Member States without accounts. Are bank accounts virtually the sole means of payment? We can first differentiate between consumers in Member States in which the banking system is not yet the virtually sole means of payment in the society, and those Member States in which there is high penetration of bank accounts and where lack of access to an account may be an indicator of financial exclusion. Where a Member State continues to have a high level of non-bank transactions, lack of a bank account is less likely to mean that the consumer is excluded from performing financial transactions. Some consumers may choose not to have accounts and may not be disadvantaged by this choice. However, as the use of bank accounts increases in those Member States, so the need for an account will increase. As the terms of reference for this study indicated, not having access