Access to banking is central to economic growth, and an important means to alleviate poverty. Through the development of partnerships, community investment programmes and specific banking services, we’re working to increase the number of people who have access to financial services. You can read more about our community initiatives in this area in Supporting our communities.
Basic banking products
Over 10 million people benefit from our basic banking products across the world.
In the UK, we offer a basic bank account that allows people to take the first step towards full financial inclusion. Our award-winning Cash Card Account has just under 1.2m customers, an increase of 178,794 compared to 2010. In 2011, we reviewed the account to ensure it remains financially sustainable for the bank while continuing to meet the needs of the target customer group. We carried out detailed customer research through an agency and in partnership with the Citizens Advice Bureau, to understand which features of the account customers value and use the most. This helped us identify how we could evolve the product in a way that meets the needs of our customers, for example, by altering statement frequency from monthly to quarterly and supplementing this with free SMS alerts. Barclays is one of only two UK banks to allow un-discharged bankrupts to open a bank account (the Cash Card Account), and the only major high street bank to do so.
In Africa, Absa’s Entry Level and Inclusive Banking Unit has developed a number of products for lower-income customers. These include transactional, savings, loan and insurance products such as the Mzansi account, a basic bank account, and the Sekulula, a debit card which helps those on government benefits gain access to the financial system.
Entry-level banking customers/products
|
|
2011 |
2010 |
2009 | ||||
| |||||||
|
Number of entry-level and inclusive banking customers in Absa (millions) |
7.4 |
7.2 |
6.9 | ||||
|
Number of entry-level bank accounts in Barclays Africa |
640,4071 |
751,860 |
661,895 | ||||
|
Number of Mzansi accounts – South Africa |
840,783 |
837,124 |
839,706 | ||||
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Number of Sekulula accounts – South Africa |
1,000,115 |
955,460 |
837,835 | ||||
|
Number of micro-enterprise finance (MEF) loans |
6,420 |
4,574 |
2,984 | ||||
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Number of cash card accounts (UK) |
1,196,286 |
1,017,494 |
843,722 | ||||
The Absa Micro Enterprise Finance unit is dedicated to helping people on low incomes start their own businesses. Community finance officers help customers with start-up loans such as the Absa Siza Loan, assist them through the process of credit assessment, then monitor and advise on their repayment schedule.
Other elements of our financial inclusion programme include improving services for people who are currently outside the traditional banking system. These include branchless banking services, such as in-store point-of-sale terminals and mobile phone-based technology. Absa offers mobile banking solutions, including a CashSend service which enables customers to send money to anyone in South Africa with a mobile phone, allowing the recipients to withdraw the cash at an ATM without the need of a card. Since launching in 2008, use of the CashSend facility has been steadily increasing, with over 150,000 transactions now recorded every month. See Absa’s 2011 Integrated Annual Report for more details.
Working in partnership
The long-term financially excluded are among the hardest people to reach in society. Our best route is often to collaborate with organisations which have experience of working with some of these vulnerable groups. For example, by working with CARE International UK and Plan UK through our Banking on Change partnership, we will be able to reach up to 400,000 people in remote or deprived areas of Africa, Asia and South America.
Our community savings groups across the world help people take control of their own finances and support each other in setting up small businesses. As at December 2011, over 320,000 people have joined over 16,200 groups and collectively saved US$5.3 m (£3.4m). We want to help more groups like this, so we have developed products like the pioneering Village Savings and Loans Association deposit account we offer in Africa (see Supporting our Communities for more details).
Supporting the community finance sector in the UK
There is a well-developed community finance network in the UK, which means we can work with organisations like credit unions to reach individuals whose financial needs may be better served that way than by mainstream financial institutions. Barclays was the first bank to fund the community finance sector back in 2004, and we’ve invested over £3m since then, supporting more than 100 individual credit unions and community development finance institutions. Our Community Finance Fund has now committed £1m over the three years from 2011 to 2013, and five community finance organisations made successful bids to the fund in 2011.
We worked with the Money Advice Service from 2009 to 2011, funding two financial inclusion advisors. They helped over 250 housing associations support their tenants in areas such as basic bank accounts, savings schemes and affordable credit. They also offered specialist debt advice to tenants with particularly severe debt problems. At the end of the two year partnership we produced our own report, Improving Financial Inclusion and Capability in Social Housing, and held a roundtable event to share the lessons learned with attendees from consumer groups, housing associations and government.
