Paying the Price – A Report into Issues Prisoners Face Around Access to Banking

Abstract

This paper is the report of a research project undertaken over the summer of 2022-2023 by Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka in conjunction with FinCap. It looks in particular into the issues that prisoners face around access to bank accounts, and more generally the issues that prisoners face around management of financial affairs from the moment of incarceration. It discusses how prisoners become financially excluded. It considers if banks might have corporate social responsibility obligations that relate to provision of bank accounts to this group of customers. It discusses the arguments that access to banking is a human right. It looks at how the UK, Australia and the USA have addressed these issues. Finally it makes a series of recommendations.

Keywords: Access to banking, prisoners, financial exclusion