October 29th, 2009 
admin Bank account numbers have risen again, the BBA confirms. The popularity of basic-functionality bank accounts continues to increase, figures from the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) have suggested.
New statistics from the industry group show that 107,000 new post office accessible accounts were opened over the second quarter of 2009, bringing the UK total to 7.9m.
Basic-functionality bank accounts are designed for those users who might not qualify for a standard high street current account.
In the past, customers could take out two separate kinds of basic account services.
Some accounts could only be operated through banks, while others were also post office accessible.
However, the BBA said that there had been a “convergence” trend in the sector over recent years.
For example, an agreement with HBOS in 2008 allowed 3.5m basic functionality accounts to be post office accessible for the first time.
The second quarter total for new accounts is around 30,000 lower than that of the first quarter.
David Dooks, BBA statistics director, said that this decline was “not unexpected”.
He added: “This particular customer market has matured in recent years and basic bank accounts are no longer an automatic progression from other accounts, for example those opened for children or by people from overseas working temporarily in the UK.”
Earlier this month, the government confirmed that its target of halving the number of Britons who did not have a bank account had been met.
This total has fallen from 2 million in 2004 to just 900,000.
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