Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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179. To ask the Minister for Finance if banks here are compliant with Article 2(2) of the European Union (Payment Accounts) Regulations 2016 (details supplied). [30898/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Payment Accounts Directive, transposed in September 2016 by the European Union (Payment Accounts) Regulations 2016, contains the right to open a payment account with basic features. This right extends to an asylum seeker, and also to a person who has not been granted a residence permit but whose expulsion is not possible for legal or practical reasons.

Regulation 16 of the European Union (Payment Accounts) Regulations 2016 permits a credit institution to refuse to open an account on one of two grounds. Those grounds are set out in the legislation but essentially are that the applicant already holds a payment account or that refusal is necessary to comply with money laundering and terrorist financing legislation. The Central Bank is the designated competent authority for the purposes of the Payment Accounts Directive. 

If an applicant is refused an account he or she can submit a complaint against that decision to the credit institution. A consumer who has a complaint that is not resolved by the credit institution’s internal complaints mechanism may make a complaint to the independent Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman.