European Accessibility Act for Banks and Fintechs: Risks and Requirements

Why is accessibility especially critical for financial services?

Although digital accessibility should be a priority in any sector, banking products are particularly important as they’re part of essential services to the population.

Receiving salaries, paying bills, accessing loans, and managing savings are some of the financial activities people complete every day and should be able to perform independently.

That means that all digital services provided by financial institutions should be accessible, such as:

• Websites

• Mobile apps

• Online banking platforms

• Banking kiosks

It is important to know that people with disabilities represent around 16% of the world’s population, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and this number is increasing due in part to population ageing.

Another important point is that disabilities can also be temporary. Someone with a temporary eye injury or eye infection can have difficulty reading small text or distinguishing colours for a period of time.

With an ageing population, some conditions that affect accessibility are becoming more common, like visual disabilities such as cataracts, glaucoma, or lower mobility, dementia, Alzheimer’s.

However, even without a diagnosed disability, older users may experience difficulties accessing websites and apps that don’t have clear structure, simple language, expected behaviour, etc.

Having user experience in mind to all audiences is always the main goal to achieve digital accessibility in banking.

Does the European Accessibility Act apply to banks and fintechs?

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) applies to organisations across different sectors and sizes that offer digital products and services to customers based within the EU, even if the company it’s not based in Europe.

Banking and financial services are specifically mentioned in the Act, which means these companies should provide accessible websites, apps, authentication flows and self-service terminals.

The EAA came into effect in June 2025, and even though it is still a relatively new legislation, making efforts to achieve digital accessibility in banking and comply with its requirements is urgent.

For banks and fintechs, EAA compliance is achieved by meeting the requirements of EN 301 549, the technical accessibility standard referenced across the EU, which incorporates WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.1 Level AA.

Which are the regulatory risks for financial services under the EAA?

EU Member States implemented the EAA in 2025 to provide a consistent landscape for businesses operating across Europe. However, some countries already had strong accessibility laws and regulators have been increasingly reviewing companies’ accessibility efforts.

One example is the ruling against Carrefour, a giant French retailer, for not being accessible to people with visual disabilities. They received a penalty of €500 per day, and €10,000 in compensation for moral damages. Read the full article here: Carrefour Accessibility Ruling & the EAA.

EAA compliance for financial services is especially important as they are essential for the population and require close attention to avoid regulatory risks.

Legal risks

One of the main risks of failing EAA compliance is the possibility of legal action and financial penalties.

Although the European Accessibility Act (EAA) is still relatively new legislation, accessibility lawsuits have been increasing in other countries, especially in the United States. These cases show the consequences organisations may face when people with disabilities cannot access important digital services.

Financial organisations in the US have already faced accessibility-related lawsuits and enforcement actions involving websites, online banking platforms, ATMs, and digital services.

Here’s one example:

Wells Fargo (2011): Settled with the US Department of Justice over accessibility barriers affecting customers with disabilities, agreeing to improve accessibility and provide compensation of up to $16 million.

These cases are based on the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), which protects the rights of people with disabilities in the United States.

While European organisations follow different regulations, the message is the same: when digital services are not accessible, customers may face barriers when trying to complete important tasks, and organisations may face legal and financial consequences.

Customer experience and trust risks

Trust is one of the most important parts of financial services. Customers expect to manage their money securely, privately, and independently.

However, when digital accessibility in baking fails, people with disabilities may need someone else’s help to complete simple tasks, such as checking their balance, making a payment, or accessing financial information.

This can create privacy concerns, frustration, and a feeling of losing independence.

For fintech companies, accessibility can also influence whether customers choose to use their services.

An accessible experience helps ensure that more customers can use your services and have a positive experience with your brand.

Financial and business risks

Failing to make digital services accessible can also create financial and business challenges.

A good illustration of this is Nucleus Research study, which shows that companies with inaccessible websites lose $6.9 billion annually to more accessible competitors.

If customers cannot use your services, they may look for alternatives. Organisations may also need to spend more time and resources fixing accessibility issues that could have been avoided.

Some of the main business risks include:

• Losing customers who cannot access your services

• Limiting your potential audience

• Spending more money fixing issues later

• Damaging your brand reputation

The good news is that accessibility improvements often benefit everyone. Clearer layouts, easier navigation, and simpler experiences can make digital services better for all users.

Accessibility requirements for financial services are not only about meeting EAA compliance. It is also about creating better experiences and ensuring everyone can access essential financial services.

Common accessibility challenges in financial services

Financial services are used every day normally involving an entire customer journey, what can represent more challenges comparing to businesses in other sectors.

Meeting EAA compliance in financial services means considering every part of this journey, from websites and mobile apps to digital documents and new technologies.

Digital accessibility issues in banking websites and mobile apps

Many digital accessibility issues in banking are always related to websites and mobile apps, because they can make the user experience more difficult, leading many times to frustration. Here are some of the most prevalent barriers:

• Poor screen reader compatibility

• Missing form labels

• Inaccessible authentication processes

• Insufficient colour contrast

• Lack of keyboard navigation

PDF accessibility for financial documents and statements

Digital documents are a very common type of document available to the customer, and which represent a high importance as well, as they can be useful to complete tasks outside of the banking digital services. The most common issues related to this are:

• Inaccessible PDFs and forms

• Statements that cannot be read by assistive technology

New technologies impact financial services accessibility

Even users without disabilities can find it difficult to contact a company or resolve issues through chatbot communication.

This type of communication can often be difficult, not follow an expected behaviour, or is not compatible with screen readers, and other complications that contribute to user exclusion and frustration.

Another example is digital identity verification, like biometric authentication, which can be a barrier to users with mobility or cognitive disabilities, or a temporary condition, such as a hand injury, when they may struggle with touch gestures, typing, or holding a device.

Clear and understandable language for banking information

Digital accessibility in banking is about making sure users can navigate, understand and interact with your digital services easily.

This is why financial services providers must provide content that is clear, with a language complexity that does not exceed B2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

In practice, this means avoiding unnecessary jargon, complex sentences, and financial terms that users may struggle to understand.

How organisations can reduce EAA compliance risks for banks

Investing in digital accessibility and inclusion is the right approach to achieve EAA compliance for banks, reduce legal risks, protect brand reputation, and provide more inclusive services.

It’s necessary to build a strong strategy to detect barriers, analyse these issues, and understand how to resolve them. Build a framework that includes:

Understanding compliance status

All the work starts by knowing where you stand right now. The first step is to understand your current EAA compliance status.

This can be done with a digital accessibility audit, which can be manual or automated, assessing your website pages, mobile apps, and all digital services to identify what needs to be worked on.

The Nexus Inclusion platform has a comprehensive suite of tools to automatically detect accessibility issues, analysing the results against WCAG principles and success criteria, and also providing detailed guidance on how to resolve each issue successfully.

The automated scan is recommended, especially to teams who are just starting in digital accessibility, providing a clear picture of your accessibility journey in just a few minutes.

Nexus Inclusion also has an Accessibility Expert team that can perform detailed and comprehensive manual audits. If you prefer this approach, reach out to us and we’ll be happy to help.

Include digital accessibility every day

Once you know how your services need to perform better on digital accessibility and user experience, integrate it into your company’s culture. Firstly, because you don’t want to keep repeating the same mistakes, and secondly because this way you can improve customer experience and satisfaction.

This means that digital accessibility should be in everyone’s minds before starting a new project, creating new content, or releasing a new product. If you don’t leave accessibility to be resolved later, you’ll be also less exposed to legal risks for failing EAA compliance.

Monitor accessibility continuously

Digital accessibility cannot be compromised every time a new feature, new content, or integration is introduced. This is why continuous monitoring is essential to maintain EAA compliance over time.

Nexus Inclusion offers a monitoring tool within its platform that provides customisable alerts every time a new issue is identified, so you can stay on top of your compliance status and resolve issues before they become a barrier to any customer.

With this tool you can understand the progress over time, and access detailed reports, which are also a good way to present to stakeholders the results of your team’s efforts.

Provide transparency and support

One of the EAA requirements for financial services and other sectors is to communicate the organisation’s accessibility efforts through an accessibility statement, where they should also include how users can report issues or request support.

This document should also include your compliance status, commitment to digital accessibility, any known accessibility limitations, your auditing frequency, and which accessibility standard you’re following.

To learn how to reduce EAA risks, it’s important to understand the requirements and paths to achieve compliance. In this article, you can learn more about it: European Accessibility Act Compliance Guide.

Reduce EAA Risks with a Proactive Accessibility Strategy

The European Accessibility Act in baking represents an important step towards making digital services more inclusive, but compliance requires ongoing effort.

The organisations that succeed with the EAA are not the ones that simply fix accessibility issues when they appear. They build accessibility into the way they design, develop, and improve digital services.

For banks and fintechs, understanding accessibility barriers early can help reduce risks, improve customer experiences, and make sure that essential financial services are available to everyone.

Start your accessibility journey with Nexus Inclusion. Our platform helps organisations detect and analyse issues, understand how to resolve them efficiently, and monitor accessibility across their digital services, making it easier to stay aligned with EAA requirements. Book a free demo and start today.