Basic financial services: A new service of general economic interest?

Abstract
In July 2011, the European Commission released a Recommendation on access to a basic payment account. The contents of this Recommendation (where Member States are required to establish universal service obligations) imply that the Commission considers that services facilitating basic access to the financial system meet the requirements to be classified of general interest. This paper discusses this possibility after studying the phenomenon of the unbanked in the European Union and, more generally, in developed countries.