Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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225. To ask the Minister for Finance the steps he has taken to ensure that all the relevant institutions are in compliance with SI No. 482 of 2016 in Part 4 Article 15(3)(b)(i) (details supplied); the way in which this is assessed and reported; the number of bank accounts operating here under this SI; if he is satisfied that all institutions are delivering on this requirement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43793/18]

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 (S.I. No. 482 of 2016), contains a right to open a payment account with basic features with a credit institution. This right extends to any person who is legally resident in the European Union, regardless of whether he or she has a fixed address.

A payment account with basic features is similar to a regular payment account in many respects. It allows a person to place money in the account, withdraw cash from the account, and to make payments using direct debits, debit cards, or credit transfers. An important difference is that a payment account with basic features does not offer credit facilities, such as an overdraft.

In Ireland, a payment account with basic features is free of charge for the first year for regular payment transactions in euro within the European Union.  Where less than the equivalent of the national minimum wage is lodged to the account in a year, the account stays free of charge on a year-by-year basis for up to five years.  After that, an account holder may be charged reasonable fees. 

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.

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.

The Central Bank is the designated competent authority for the purposes of the European Union (Payment Accounts) Regulations 2016. It informs me that, in the period from September 2016 to the end of June 2018, 69,182 accounts that met the criteria of a payment account with basic features were opened across all six Irish credit institutions.

The Central Bank collects this data from firms for the purposes of evaluation of the Payment Accounts Directive, and I do not have a further breakdown of the number of payment accounts by institution.