Payment account with basic features and its significance in the reduction of financial exclusion in Poland

Abstract

Motivation: The Payment Accounts Directive (PAD) constitutes an important regulation of the financial services market in the European Union resulting from premises of a social nature. Regarding the level of financial exclusion, Poland is third from the bottom in the European Union. Directive 2014/92/EU foresees an introduction of a payment account with basic features as a solution increasing the level of banking penetration ratio in the Member States. The changes introduced in the Polish Payment Services Act (PPSA) seem to be heading in this direction. Aim: The aim of this article is to evaluate the objectives of the aforementioned Directive and Act in the context of practical possibilities of achieving the basic objective of the regulations, i.e. the reduction of financial exclusion scale. An assessment of whether the implementation of the PAD in the Polish banking system will require considerable expenses and changes in the banks’ market offer constitutes an additional objective of the article. Such an assessment requires taking into consideration the problems occurring both on the supply side, that is banks, and on the demand side, that is their customers. Results: The limited functionality and also attractiveness of a payment account with basic features, clearly shaped by the provisions of PAD, indicate that it is a solution aimed at a small group of consumers with low income and also low payment needs. Simultaneously, the emphasis indicated in PAD on the comparability of fees on payment accounts and on creating a commonly accessible service of transferring a payment account by consumers (as a consequence of easier comparison of account fees with its functionality in the offer of various providers) indicates that using a payment account with basic features may be of temporary character.