the criteria to benefit from it will change

Faced with rising prices, French banks have committed to reassessing, by the summer, the income thresholds allowing them to benefit from the capping of incident costs of 25 euros per month, as a fragile customer. Some will also use references indexed to inflation, such as the SMIC or the RSA.

This is the new episode of a long saga. For years, public authorities, banks and consumer associations have been talking to set up an umbrella to protect banking customers in a deteriorating financial situation, those who suffer from avalanches of bank charges. For years, too, pressure has been put on banks to welcome more people under this umbrella, which notably provides for a capping 25 euros per month costs resulting from payment incidents.

Financial fragility: banking offers for vulnerable customers

The issue, in particular, is that of their detection: according to what criteria do we decide that a customer’s financial situation is sufficiently degraded to make them eligible for this cap? Since the end of 2020, some of these criteria have been included in the regulations, and banks must therefore apply them.

But the legislator chose to give them the possibility of setting a monthly credit flow threshold on the account, beyond which a customer is not eligible, regardless of the number of payment incidents he records. A margin of maneuver opposed by consumer associations, who have long demanded that it be raised or, at least, regulated and harmonized between banks.

Variable thresholds

In fact, the thresholds used by banks are far from being unified. Most chose to retain a fixed amount, ranging from 700 euros at N26 to 1710 euros at Ma French Bank, with a strong concentration around 1500 euros. Three, for their part, use variable and inflation-indexed references: the minimum wage for the brands of the BPCE group (Banques Populaires and Caisses d’Epargne) and for La Banque Postale, the RSA for those of the Crdit Mutuel Alliance Fdrale (including CIC and Monabanq).

Here are the details, as of April 3, 2024, of these income criteria, expressed in monthly credit flows on the account, sometimes on average over several months.

Most banks should move

The landscape, however, is expected to rapidly evolve. The question of resources to consider was on the agenda of the last meeting of the Banking Inclusion Observatory (OIB), on March 25. In the background, the high inflation which has been going on for two years and its impact on eligibility for fragile client status.

According to a communication published on April 3 by its president, the governor of the Bank of France Franois Villeroy de Galhau, the banks have committed to making an effort. Those which until now applied a threshold fixed in euros for the assessment of the amount of resources credited into the account have revalued it or are committed to doing so by the summer, details the press release. Most of these establishments have also decided to apply, as of this opportunity, a calculation formula based on an indicator itself index (such as the SMIC, the RSA, the poverty threshold, etc.).

These promises should engage all retail banks in the market, with the exception of the three mentioned above. Since our last statement, in July 2020, two of them, BNP Paribas and LCL, have, on the contrary, lowered the threshold of the credit flows retained: from 1900 to 1500 for the first, from 1500 to 1128 for the second. Three others did not touch it: Crdit Mutuel Arka (1500), Socit Generale (1500) and BoursoBank (1500). As for Crdit Agricole and its subsidiary BforBank, they moved from a variable threshold, depending on the amount of the customer’s payment incidents, to a fixed threshold, respectively 1650 and 1535.