The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) is launching a comparison portal for current accounts for private individuals. The portal data will be filled in by financial institutions. This means they will have to undergo a comprehensive cost and service comparison. The portal is intended to provide an overview of all account models, costs and services offered by 1,100 banks, savings banks and fintechs in Germany. A total of 6,900 different account models, including information on account management fees, conditions for debit and credit cards and interest rates, are freely available at kontenvergleich.bafin.de, BaFin announced last week.

Banks are themselves responsible for the delivery and correctness of the data, which is transmitted without further checking or processing by BaFin. The supervisors will only carry out spot checks to assess that data is correct. According to BaFin, the legal basis for the initiative is the EU Payment Accounts Directive, according to which consumers must be given free access to a private or state-operated comparison portal for current accounts. As part of the Future Financing Act, the legal requirements for the operation of a comparison website by BaFin have been created by amendments to the Payment Accounts Act in Germany.

BaFin's comparison portal was originally supposed to go online almost three years ago. Before that, Check24 had launched a free website in 2020, but shut it down after a few months at the beginning of the following year because consumer advocates filed a lawsuit. They criticised insufficient market coverage, as only just under one in three financial institutions were included, and the fact that only one current account model per bank was usually analysed, and not all variants.

In order to now make different account models comparable, consumers can put together a sample account and select 27 criteria, such as account fees, credit card fees or overdraft interest rates. According to BaFin, the aim is neither to pursue a commercial interest nor to make recommendations for accounts or providers. The intention is to create transparency for an initial categorisation.

BaFin Executive Director Thorsten Pötzsch said in a statement that the new comparison portal is a „milestone in active consumer protection“. According to Federal Finance Minister Jörg Kukies, it „shows the fees and services of all account models for private individuals in Germany clearly, neutrally and free of charge, thus creating transparency on the current account market“.