By Valeria Genesio*
In today’s world, a bank account is no longer just a financial service: it is a fundamental prerequisite for living legally. Without it, you cannot receive a salary, pay rent, or access basic public services. It is the minimum threshold of access to economic life and civil society.
This is so widely recognised that the EU, through Directive 2014/92/EU (transposed into Italian law by Decreto Legislativo 37/2017), has introduced the right to a basic bank account for citizens considered financially vulnerable. Furthermore, several international institutions now define access to banking services as an emerging human right, aligned with Goal 8 of the UN 2030 Agenda.
Yet, in practice, this right is increasingly denied. Individuals and enterprises are often refused or lose access to a bank account without clear justification, based on opaque profiling systems and extreme caution by bank compliance departments.
Banks wield near-absolute discretion, invoking anti-money laundering (AML) risk or de-risking strategies. According to the European Banking Authority’s Consumer Trends Report 2024/25, de-risking is one of the top three issues facing European consumers today. The EBA itself has recognised that access to basic financial services is essential for effective participation in economic and social life.
Legal rights to a bank account are undermined by invasive due diligence procedures that turn minor inconsistencies or flawed translations into suspicious indicators. A random name match in a database or a blog post can lead to exclusion. With no hearing, no explanation, and no appeal.
This legal paradox demands urgent attention.
Since the 1990s, European banking systems have shifted from public infrastructure to private networks, prioritising efficiency and profit. After 9/11, global security became paramount, and new AML and anti-terrorism regulations outsourced state functions to private actors. Banks now exercise de facto public control without being held to public standards.
Like notaries and other regulated professionals, private banks are charged with implementing policies to combat money laundering, terrorism, and corruption. But while exercising a public role, they remain profit-driven and unaccountable. The cost of this compliance burden ultimately falls on citizens.
Worse still, decisions are often based on paid databases such as World Check, maintained by private companies and populated by unverifiable sources. In 2017, European data protection authorities raised concerns about the risk of mass private blacklisting. Since then, nothing has changed.
With the advent of AI-driven systems, exclusions increasingly stem from algorithms and red flags, rather than verified facts. People are denied access based on nationality, industry sector, distant links to flagged individuals, or even pending defamation claims. Often, no reason is given at all.
If we accept that a bank account is essential to function in modern society, then denying one should not be a mere commercial decision: it is a decision about someone’s life.
We must rethink the link between bank access and economic freedom. The current system risks violating legal principles of fairness and good faith.
Possible solutions include recognising the right to a bank account as a fully enforceable individual right for both citizens and businesses; placing limits on bank discretion; introducing a duty to justify refusals; and establishing fast-track appeal mechanisms. Finally, we must regulate the use of profiling tools and databases, ensuring transparency, verified sources, and the right to reply.
No one should be excluded from the economic system by an algorithm.
Access to a bank account must be a right, not a privilege. Denying access to a bank account today amounts to exercising unchecked authority, while inadvertently reinforcing the informal economy that anti-money laundering regulations are designed to suppress. And this, a rule-of-law State cannot accept.
*President of Agedi
In today’s world, a bank account is no longer just a financial service: it is a fundamental prerequisite for living legally. Without it, you cannot receive a salary, pay rent, or access basic public services. It is the minimum threshold of access to economic life and civil society.
This is so widely recognised that the EU, through Directive 2014/92/EU (transposed into Italian law by Decreto Legislativo 37/2017), has introduced the right to a basic bank account for citizens considered financially vulnerable. Furthermore, several international institutions now define access to banking services as an emerging human right, aligned with Goal 8 of the UN 2030 Agenda.
Yet, in practice, this right is increasingly denied. Individuals and enterprises are often refused or lose access to a bank account without clear justification, based on opaque profiling systems and extreme caution by bank compliance departments.
Banks wield near-absolute discretion, invoking anti-money laundering (AML) risk or de-risking strategies. According to the European Banking Authority’s Consumer Trends Report 2024/25, de-risking is one of the top three issues facing European consumers today. The EBA itself has recognised that access to basic financial services is essential for effective participation in economic and social life.
Legal rights to a bank account are undermined by invasive due diligence procedures that turn minor inconsistencies or flawed translations into suspicious indicators. A random name match in a database or a blog post can lead to exclusion. With no hearing, no explanation, and no appeal.
This legal paradox demands urgent attention.
Since the 1990s, European banking systems have shifted from public infrastructure to private networks, prioritising efficiency and profit. After 9/11, global security became paramount, and new AML and anti-terrorism regulations outsourced state functions to private actors. Banks now exercise de facto public control without being held to public standards.
Like notaries and other regulated professionals, private banks are charged with implementing policies to combat money laundering, terrorism, and corruption. But while exercising a public role, they remain profit-driven and unaccountable. The cost of this compliance burden ultimately falls on citizens.
Worse still, decisions are often based on paid databases such as World Check, maintained by private companies and populated by unverifiable sources. In 2017, European data protection authorities raised concerns about the risk of mass private blacklisting. Since then, nothing has changed.
With the advent of AI-driven systems, exclusions increasingly stem from algorithms and red flags, rather than verified facts. People are denied access based on nationality, industry sector, distant links to flagged individuals, or even pending defamation claims. Often, no reason is given at all.
If we accept that a bank account is essential to function in modern society, then denying one should not be a mere commercial decision: it is a decision about someone’s life.
We must rethink the link between bank access and economic freedom. The current system risks violating legal principles of fairness and good faith.
Possible solutions include recognising the right to a bank account as a fully enforceable individual right for both citizens and businesses; placing limits on bank discretion; introducing a duty to justify refusals; and establishing fast-track appeal mechanisms. Finally, we must regulate the use of profiling tools and databases, ensuring transparency, verified sources, and the right to reply.
No one should be excluded from the economic system by an algorithm.
Access to a bank account must be a right, not a privilege. Denying access to a bank account today amounts to exercising unchecked authority, while inadvertently reinforcing the informal economy that anti-money laundering regulations are designed to suppress. And this, a rule-of-law State cannot accept.
*President of Agedi
