FT.com / UK / Politics & policy - Banks face ‘payback time’ in Budget .

The chancellor will also confirm that banks will be required to make simple current accounts available to all citizens, to help tackle the problem of “financial exclusion” among 1.75m “unbanked” Britons.

This is vital if predatory lenders are to be beaten and poverty is to be eased.

But the conditions have to be tight - not least very low or no charging. And overdraft notification fees must reflect marginal cost for supplying them - little more than a stamp in other words.

The days of the banks exploiting ordinary people have to end.