90
8
times, because the requester already had a
current account.
In 2011, the Mediation Service did not receive
any complaints about the basic bank service.
Belgium is considered to be a standard in
the field of the basic bank service. On 18 July
2011,
the European Commission issued a
non-binding recommendation to encourage
EU countries to offer a basic bank service to
every EU citizen. This recommendation was
largely based on the Belgian model, and many
provisions from Belgian legislation were ad-
opted integrally.
Micro-financing
Via micro-financing, people who wish to start
up a business and have difficulty obtaining a
loan via the normal channels (unemployed
people, for example) can nevertheless be
helped along with small loans, typically up to
approx. €10,000. Besides financial support,
micro-financing institutions (MFIs) also pro-
vide training courses and advice to budding
entrepreneurs.
In Belgium, but also abroad, start-up busi-
nesses and small-scale local initiatives are sup-
ported this way. MFIs abroad mainly aim to
fight poverty, whereas in Belgium they wish to
grant loans to persons who are excluded from
the traditional banking system.
Banks do not offer micro-loans, but they sup-
port these initiatives via a partnership with
micro-financing institutions.
Digital gap
The product and services offer that the finan-
cial sector provides is increasingly digitalised
and automated. Internet banking, self-bank-
ing, etc., have the major advantage that every-
thing is faster, cheaper and often easier. Nev-
ertheless there is a growing group of people
who cannot handle this technology. It will be
a challenge, therefore, for the financial sector
to prevent the digital gap that is coming about
from excluding these people financially.
“
The law introducing a basic
banking service: a big step forward.
Ten years later: time to take stock:
has exclusion from banks been
abolished?”
Françoise Deboe, Combat Poverty Service, September 2012
4.
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PEOPLE