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GCS provides a critical
“basic transactional” service for the “unbanked”. We offer a tried, tested
and proven model which works to alleviate issues associated with social
poverty and exclusion. Our customers are, in the most part, left with little
or no choice for their banking, unable and often unwilling to engage with
mainstream banks, or forced to pay charges at cheque point centres just to
access benefit payments. For this group GCS offers the following unique
propositions:
Normally a bank requires customers to meet stringent “know your customer”
(KYC) personal identification (ID) and address verification (AV) checks
before they will open an account. Banks need two pieces of separate
identification - one for name verification and one for address verification,
before opening any account. There is a long list within most financial
institutions of acceptable ID and AV, often over three tiers, beginning with
passport and driving licences, and going through tenancy agreements, benefit
books and utility bills to letters from hostel managers and employers. Banks
prefer ID and AV at the tier 1 level. Opening a bank account and/or
accessing banking services can therefore be extremely difficult, if not
impossible, for people who cannot produce tier 1 ID or AV.
Perhaps not surprisingly the typical GCS customer has
greater difficulty in providing acceptable ID and AV. They may not possess a
passport or driving licence, may not have a tenancy in their own name and
therefore have no utility bills. It is also very unlikely that they will
appear on a voters’ role. Adding to this difficulty are issues of
self-confidence and financial capability that are required by individuals to
a) approach a bank (for some, seeking a basic bank account can be a daunting
experience even with the correct ID and AV), and b) having the discipline in
an often chaotic lifestyle to operate a basic bank account. Keeping money
safe through GCS is simple and non-threatening – a photograph is taken of
the customer and stored on a database, together with two sample signatures
and, if available, an address and national insurance number. GCS keeps a
manual record of every account holder as well as the photograph in the
database. |
