Are you having trouble opening a bank account in Lund? Lots of people we've talked to have been discriminated against by the banks. They're told that they can't access the internet services (including free bill pay), that they can't open an account or lots of other strange things. Why? Because, they're told, they don't speak Swedish, they don't have a Swedish ID, or they don't have a Swedish personal number. These practices are a violation of Swedish law, EU law and unethical and the banks should have to answer for their actions.
If you were discriminated against because you're not Swedish you can take a stand by filing an application with the Discrimination Ombudsman. You do not have to speak Swedish - reports are accepted in any language (although unfortunately the downloadable PDF is only in Swedish). If you wish to discuss your experiences with the Smålands International Secretariat then send us an email and we can try to help as best we can.
There has been some press about this in Sweden (for example, this article about a Finnish student denied a bank account, in Swedish) but no serious reports seem to have been filed yet.
I went into SEB the other day searching for a bank account and they wanted to charge me 300Kr just to open one but when I talked to someone else who opened a bank account there they said they weren't charged any opening fee. I definitely got this arbitrary charge racist vibe from my experience there so I am happy to hear you mention it.
SvaraRaderaUnbelievable! We had to have a huge discussion with SEB in which they basically admitted they were guilty of discrimination to us (they denied a woman the right to use the internet services and instead told her to come in and pay her bills at 70kr per bill - with the internet services this would be free). They claimed they educated their employees and that it would come to an end. We figured no one would have to report them for discrimination after that.
SvaraRaderaI'm so tired of this crap. If you want to take them on then we'll help you out. It's best if you have some kind of proof that they wanted to charge money for opening a bank account - some kind of printout.. and it would also be helpful to have the name of the person there. Also, if it is found that you were a victim of ethnic discrimination then you can get financial compensation. Please get in touch with us if you'd like to take the next step so that no other person will have to deal with their illegal practices.