Major Banks to Assist Financially Vulnerable Canadians

Delivering on a promise made in the Economic Action Plan 2014, Finance Minister Joe Oliver announced that the Government of Canada secured voluntary commitments from the country’s eight largest banks to provide low-cost or no-cost bank accounts to low income Canadians by January 15, 2015.

Youth, students, and seniors qualifying for the Guaranteed Income Supplement, and Registered Disability Savings Plan beneficiaries will be entitled to no-cost accounts. Low-cost accounts, with a cost of about $4 per month, will be available to other vulnerable low-income Canadians. Eligibility details for the low-cost accounts were not fully canvassed.

“Our Government believes Canadians deserve to keep more of their hard-earned money. That is why we are taking action to improve low-cost accounts and expand access to no-cost banking services for more than 7 million people—to protect consumers and save even more money for Canadians. I applaud the eight major Canadian banks for their commitments to address the needs of consumers, and I look forward to seeing these commitments become reality,” stated Joe Oliver.

It is estimated that around 7 million Canadians will benefit from this new measure.

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