In today’s society, having access to a payment account and payment services is essential for managing one's finances. Within the EU, the Payment Accounts Directive gives all consumers legally resident in the European Economic Area (EEA) the right to open a payment account with basic functions.

However, Finansinspektionen (FI) reports that more and more consumers are experiencing that banks are refusing to allow them to open a payment account or that their payment account has been blocked or terminated. The Swedish Consumers’ Banking and Finance Bureau writes that the most common complaint made to the bureau concerns terminated payment accounts. It is also common for consumers to turn to the bureau because they have been refused a payment account. Most often, it is people who do not have a Swedish identity document but have an EU passport or other identity document issued by a competent authority who are denied a payment account. It is also common for employers, often IT companies or universities, to complain that workers from countries outside of Europe have problems opening payment accounts.