Only 4% of French people changed banks in 2021 thanks to this service set up in 2017.
Set up in 2017, via the Macron law, to facilitate the change of bank, the bank mobility assistance system has been pschitt. Only 4% of French people have indeed changed their banking establishment thanks to this service in 2021, according to a survey by the online comparator Panorabanques published on Tuesday.
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This allows you to give a mandate to your bank to carry out all the procedures related to the change of bank domiciliation, in place of your client. “For example, your new bank sends your new RIB to your energy supplier and your employer. […] The new bank can also take care of the procedures for closing the old bank account at the customer’s request.“, explains Panorabanques.
Questioned in August 2021 or in February 2022 on their possible change of bank during the last twelve months, the 2000 French people questioned are only a little more than a third (35%) to have used this device to change bank. Among its users, young people are overrepresented, since 43% are between 18 and 34 years old.
French conservatives
More generally, the French remain a minority to change banks. Only 8% of respondents indicate that they have changed banks by doing the process on their own. The remaining 88% say they have not changed banks. A certain conservatism that benefits traditional banks with agencies. More than nine out of ten French people (93%) are indeed customers of this type of establishment as their main bank, compared to 6% for online banks and 1% for neobanks. Note that more than four out of ten French people (42%) have bank accounts in several banks.
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In mid-February, the Prudential Control and Resolution Authority (ACPR), the sector’s policeman, had pointed out certain shortcomings in the application of the banking mobility assistance system, after having “noted a significant increase in disputes“. Specifically “significant account closure delays“, on average 53 days in 2020 and 93 days in 2019. The establishments put these delays on the account of “many blockages“, such as the holding of an account or an associated product (savings account, insurance, credit) – which are excluded from the aid system -, the persistence of an overdraft or the non-return of the means of payment.