While some of the main preliminary results were already announced before, publication by the Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten (CBCS) of a recent survey on payment behaviour in cooperation with the St. Maarten Department of Statistics (STAT) confirms that a large part of the Dutch side’s population does not have access to regular banking services (see related story). Among 4,400 “randomly chosen” households polled, 23% said they had no current account and 17% no digital payment alternatives either, leaving them “totally unbanked” altogether.
Of those lacking a current account with a commercial bank or credit union, 27% did have a savings account, but it allows fewer services and thus cannot be considered a replacement. Eighty per cent of respondents prefer to pay cash for purchases and 69% bills, 49% even of amounts over 2,001 Netherlands Antillean guilders.
While 46% of those with no current account reported no interest in getting one, 16% said they were unable to provide proof of income and 12% lacked a local identification card. Although it is long known that born St. Maarteners are a minority among the population, the fact that it regards only 21% of those without a current account does indicate the problem is especially prevalent among immigrant groups, including informal workers and possibly to a large degree undocumented residents.
Still, there is a European Union (EU) directive regarding universal access to basic bank accounts for all citizens, as United People’s (UP) Party leader Rolando Brison again brought up during a relevant presentation by the Council of State at the recent Inter-Parliamentary Kingdom Consultation IKPO in The Hague. He was told, based on an initiative draft in the Dutch Parliament to ensure bank access for all subjects of the kingdom, that this seemed to be quite complicated particularly according to the banking sector.
One of the EU rules in question is getting a reply on applications for basic bank accounts in 10 business days and the St. Maarten Bankers’ Association has already promised to make improvements in that regard. Looking at the survey’s numbers, one would say something must indeed be done.
Local banks had no choice but to become more stringent due to the “de-risking policies” of essential correspondent banks in the US. However, combined with eliminating cheques and a push towards online banking, they threaten to exclude – often older and poorer – people from the legal financial system, indirectly contributing to a growing disenfranchised community.
