Access to financial services for CSOs on the move: insights and recommendations

For over a decade, ECNL has been supporting civil society organisations (CSOs) working in restrictive environments, including those forced to change their way of operation or relocate due to serious risks to their safety, freedom, health or lives because of their human rights work. We refer to these organisations as working “in exile” or “involuntary relocation”. Throughout this time, the groups have reported increasing challenges in accessing financial services, including difficulties with opening bank accounts, transferring funds or facing account closures. To better understand their experiences, we carried out an elaborate survey.

In our new report “Access to financial services by civil society organisations on the move”, you can find the outcomes of the survey that was filled out by 34 representatives of CSOs. The report presents an overview of most common challenges CSOs encounter when it comes to opening bank accounts, processing payments and using alternative financial services (non-traditional banking and financial solutions, such as online payment systems or cryptocurrency). 

Key findings and next steps

1. Over half of the CSOs that attempted to open a bank account experienced challenges, most of these were related to eligibility requirements, and procedural and administrative issues.
2. Over a third of the CSOs that were able to open a bank account experienced issues with sending and/or receiving funds.
3. More than half of the CSOs used alternative financial services: offline payment systems, such as Western Union and online payment systems, such as Wise or PayPal. In two thirds of the cases, CSOs successfully used such services to overcome challenges arising from regular banking.  

Based on the findings, the following action points are essential to support CSOs working in restrictive environments to access financial services:

1. Map out hybrid models of work and their implications for banking and other financial services to support CSOs in navigating complexities of working from different locations.
2. Launch a dialogue between the key stakeholders, including decision-makers, bank associations and CSOs to find long-term structural solutions to issues CSOs are facing with accessing financial services.
3. Work with bank associations as well as individual banks to raise awareness of the specific challenges that CSOs in involuntary relocation/exile experience and to find ways for adjusting the administrative procedures and eligibility requirements to reflect the CSO realities.
4. Map out key financial service providers outside of the standard banking institutions and their main advantages and disadvantages to provide CSOs working in restrictive environments with short-term solutions to access funds and pay their bills. 

ECNL remains committed to working with partners to address the action points above. 

Are you a CSO working in exile or involuntarily relocation facing issues with access financial services? Share your story or learn more about how other groups have overcome challenges by contacting us at [email protected]. 

We would like to thank all our partners, who helped with consultations or sharing our survey, including International Partnership for Human Rights, People in Need, Open Society Foundations, International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, Protect Defenders, Araminta Advisers, European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, The Sigrid Rausing Trust, Ford Foundation, Front Line Defenders, Protection International, Oxfam, Human Security Collective, Charity & Security Network, Netherlands Helsinki Committee, Apatride Network, and Justice & Peace Netherlands.