In the US, organisations such as Consumers’ Union are fighting to create legislation that will help protect vulnerable consumers from price gouging on checking accounts. They are demanding lifeline banking legislation that will give consumers access to basic banking services. Several American States have implemented legislation for minimum no-frills banking services.
Return to lower interest rates in AEs poses challenges as leverage has already built up in the EMEs and the needed deleveraging is not complete in many European economies. Amid low global interest rates, total credit to the nonfinancial sector in the EMEs went up from 107.2 per cent of GDP at the end of 2008 to 194.