‘Expensive’ banking services must be more specialist, say Finland’s charities

Many civil society organisations (CSOs) in Finland think that banking services are too expensive and do not cater for their specific needs, a survey has found.

The survey was run by Kansalaisyhteiskuntapolitiikan neuvottelukunta (KANE), a Government-appointed board advising on civil society policy matters, and was completed by a total of 1,252 associations and foundations, of which three-quarters were small, volunteer-run organisations with no employees.

Nearly half of respondents said they thought that banks should offer specific accounts for nonprofit organisations, rather than offering them business bank accounts which provide less relevant services.

KANE notes that many small CSOs operate with cash and no bank account – 7% of respondents to the survey said that they had tried to open an account but had been unable to do so.

In total, 32% of CSOs thought that the pricing of banking services was ‘very unreasonable’; 38% thought it was ‘quite unreasonable’, 14% said ‘neither reasonable nor unreasonable’, 13% said ‘quite reasonable’ and 2% said ‘very reasonable’.

Despite cost concerns, the majority of organisations (57%) said they were happy with the service they received from their bank.

Smaller organisations and those with no paid staff were more likely to say the cost of banking was unreasonable, and less likely to be satisfied with the service received.

Respondents also raised concerns including complaints about the complexity and bureaucracy involved with using bank services. They also noted that branches were not always conveniently located and could have inconvenient opening hours, especially for a volunteer who is in employment.

KANE says that the country’s Ministry of Finance will consider these results as it assesses the need to change legislation in this area, and the Ministry of Justice will also consider it as part of an NGO strategy which it is currently preparing.

There are longstanding concerns about CSOs being able to access appropriate banking services – or being denied banking services by risk-averse banks – across Europe and beyond.

In the UK for example, charity regulators wrote to the country’s largest banks in November to request “urgent action” to stop charities being given poor service or denied accounts, as Fundraising Europe reported. In August, Fundraising Europe noted a new publication designed to support the financial and civil society sectors in working together to find solutions to.

Picture by Alexandr Bormotin on Unsplash