For a full life in the Netherlands, you must have a bank account (for example, in the country it is forbidden to pay salaries in cash). However, Ukrainian refugees under temporary EU protection are having difficulty opening them. The reason is that banks operate within the framework of the rules established by law, and it is difficult to comply with them in modern conditions. This problem is known to all. Parliament sent a request to the Minister of Finance of the Netherlands, Sigrid AM Kaag, and on July 19, 2022, the minister sent a letter to Parliament on the progress in resolving this issue. The full text of the letter in Dutch can be read here.
Parliament's request was linked to MP Van der Lee's proposals, in which he called for Ukrainian refugees to be allowed to open accounts in a way that would not cause negative consequences for banks.
The minister said that the bulk of Ukrainian refugees have already opened bank accounts. According to the latest data, about 33 thousand accounts have been opened for this category of refugees, which corresponds to ¾ of the total number of adult Ukrainians registered in the Personal Records Database (Basisregistratie Personen (BRP)).
However, there is a problem in this process: some of the refugees have expired passports or passports of the old type, without a chip with personal data. Banking equipment reads personal data directly from documents; this standard has been widespread throughout Europe since 2004. As a result, holders of old or expired Ukrainian passports cannot open an account. To issue an invoice for documents that do not contain biometric data, it is necessary to manually draw up a protocol and reconfigure the system, which takes a lot of time. Refugees without biometric passports are currently being issued prepaid bank cards to receive benefits. But this cannot be considered the final solution to the problem, since without an account it is impossible to receive a salary and arrange a number of necessary services.
Consultations are currently underway with the participation of the Ministry of Finance, the National Bank of the Netherlands (DNB), banking and payment associations aimed at solving this problem. In particular, Bunq bank has developed a pilot project, according to which a bank account will be opened for Ukrainian refugees who have an expired or non-biometric passport, if they present an additional certificate from the Embassy of Ukraine. There is a proposal to extend this project to the entire territory and all banks of the country, but due to the large time spent on opening one account and the huge number of refugees, the expediency of such actions is questionable.
Other banks are also working to ensure the opening of accounts for Ukrainian refugees, based on their own equipment and internal protocols.
DNB and the Ministry of Finance are in constant consultation with banks to eliminate the problems that Ukrainians face when opening an account. The possibility of providing Ukrainians who do not have biometric passports with temporary Dutch documents equipped with a chip is being considered. However, making such a decision is difficult due to the global shortage of chips.
The minister is forced to state that the problem has not yet been resolved, but he assures that they continue to actively seek a solution.
Perhaps the Ukrainian government will solve this problem earlier, because the issuance of Ukrainian passports abroad has begun. Find out more about it in our article.
Publication Date: 21.07.2022
