Foreigners in Finland sometimes have great difficulty opening bank accounts. Banks often demand Finnish identification documents, and the office of the minorities’ ombudsman says it has received plenty of complaints about the issue.
For one immigrant in Häme, who moved to Finland from outside the European Union to live with his Finnish wife, banks’ behaviour has been difficult to accept. First he tried to get online banking credentials for a joint account held in his wife’s name. That didn’t work.
“Then we went to another bank,” said the man, who was living in Finland for a year and three months before he finally got a bank account. “The cashier there started to ask about drug smuggling and money laundering. It felt like I was in a police interview, suspected of some crime. Then I asked if they’d give me a bank account, bank card and online banking access. They said no, not unless you have official Finnish ID.”
Tough stipulations
The man says he has a valid passport, a long-term residence permit, a tax card and a social security number. Since his attempt to get an account he has also acquired a police ID card, and eventually acquired online banking access. His complaint about the way he was treated is currently with the Ombudsman for Minorities.
Banks say that in principle they will grant online banking access, just so long as they can be sure of a person’s identity. Online banking is used to verify identity for several official online services, including the Social Insurance Institution (Kela) and the tax office.
That means banks can be strict when granting online banking rights and even opening a basic account. Two cases were taken to the National Discrimination Tribunal this year, and two banks were fined for refusing banking services to EU citizens using EU ID documents. One bank appealed, so the judgment is not yet final, but people from outside the EU are in an even worse position.
Difficult life without online banking
“Things are really hard without a bank account or online banking access,” said the man from Häme. “It also makes it hard to integrate and become part of Finnish society. As banking services are basic services, in my opinion citizens should have the right to a bank account, a bank card and online banking credentials.”
The south Häme Osuuspankki—one of the banks the man had approached—says that a valid passport and a Finnish residence permit is enough for a bank account and bank card, but that the police ID is needed for online banking.
The man himself, however, still has no online banking access. He thinks his experiences could be partly down to discrimination, based on the behaviour of the cashier at one bank.
“She took my pass and started waving it, saying ‘this is the reason’,” said the man. “Then I realized that the reason is apparently that I am not from Europe, that I am from an African country and not a typical white-skinned person.”
This story was edited on 11 November to state that the man now has online banking credentials.