You have the option of applying to the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) for administrative proceedings against a payment service provider such as a bank or savings bank if

• they reject your application to conclude a basic account agreement or
• the decision on your account opening application or the conclusion of the basic account opening is delayed by more than 10 business days.

A payment service provider may only reject your application for a basic account if

• you already have and can use a current account (technical term: payment account) with another company in Germany,
• you have not sufficiently legitimized yourself,
• you have been convicted of an intentional criminal offense within the last 3 years against
  • the payment service provider,
  • one of its employees,
  • one of its customers has been convicted,
• you already had a basic account with the same payment service provider and the payment service provider terminated your basic account contract within the last year before submitting the application because you were in default of payment or you used your account for prohibited purposes, or

provisions for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing require the bank to refuse to open the account.

With your application for an administrative procedure, BaFin checks whether the payment service provider has rightly rejected your application for a basic account.

If the payment service provider wrongly refuses to open a basic account, BaFin will order the payment service provider to open your basic account.

Note: Once you have submitted your application for a basic account, the payment service provider must offer you the conclusion of a basic account agreement within 10 business days or notify you in writing of a rejection of the application within the same period.