Financial Inclusion in Payments

Financial inclusion, in payments, is the question of whether a person can send and receive money, hold a bank account and pay for everyday goods without a bank turning them away. The EU addressed it directly with the Payment Accounts Directive, which every member state transposed into national law: in Germany, the Zahlungskontengesetz (ZKG). Under section 31 ZKG, anyone with lawful residence in the EU has a right to a basic payment account, a Basiskonto, and a bank has ten business days to decide on the application. The right reaches people other parts of the financial system often exclude: people without a fixed address, and asylum seekers.

A Basiskonto gives its holder the core functions of a current account: deposits, withdrawals, SEPA transfers, direct debits and a debit card, plus online banking wherever the bank offers it to other customers. It comes without an overdraft or credit facility, so a bank cannot use inclusion as a route to lending it does not want to extend. BaFin, which supervises German banks on this duty, explains the account this way on its consumer pages. A bank may still refuse or terminate a Basiskonto in narrow cases set out in the ZKG, for example when the applicant already holds an equivalent account or has misused a previous one, but it cannot refuse an application on the ground that opening the account would not be profitable.

Financial inclusion has moved past the account itself into the rails a person actually uses. Since the EU's instant payments rule took effect, a bank that offers SEPA transfers must offer the ten-second instant version at no extra cost, which matters for someone who cannot absorb a delay between paying rent and being paid. On the identity side, opening any account, including a Basiskonto, still requires proof of identity under the Geldwäschegesetz; for a person without a passport, a separate federal ordinance names the documents a bank can accept instead, which is why the right to an account and the practical ability to prove identity have to work together. Access to physical cash remains part of the same conversation in Germany, where branch and ATM closures have made cash withdrawal a policy question the Deutsche Bundesbank tracks alongside digital payment adoption.

Finance Loop is the meeting place for people who build the payment products and identity infrastructure that decide who can bank and pay easily and who cannot: fintechs, banks, payment institutions and the compliance teams that set account-opening rules. It connects the finance, IT and AI communities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with events in Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg.

Finance Loop is a strategic partner of the Digital Euro Association, the Frankfurt think tank behind the Digital Euro Conference, where access to digital money for people without a bank account has been part of the digital euro debate. Related pages: payments in Germany and open banking in Germany.

Anyone with lawful residence in the EU can apply for a Basiskonto under section 31 of the Zahlungskontengesetz, including people without a fixed address and asylum seekers. The bank has ten business days to open the account or give a written reason for refusing it, and the allowed reasons for refusal are narrow.

A Basiskonto covers deposits, withdrawals, SEPA credit transfers, direct debits, a debit card and online banking where the bank offers it. It does not come with an overdraft or a credit line, so it gives access to payments without extending lending the bank did not agree to.

A bank can refuse only in the narrow cases the Zahlungskontengesetz names, such as when the applicant already holds an equivalent account elsewhere in Germany or has misused a Basiskonto in the past. It cannot refuse simply because the account is not profitable for the bank.