Accessibility requirements for Banking & Financial Services websites

Regulations that apply

Banking & Financial Services sits at the intersection of general digital-accessibility law and sector-specific obligations. The most relevant items to track:

• EAA — Annex I, Section III

  Specific banking obligations: ATM, online banking, mobile banking.

  EU

• PSD2

  Strong customer authentication that must remain accessible.

  EU

• Section 508

  Required for federal credit unions and any contractor.

  US federal

The accessibility risks specific to Banking & Financial Services

Every industry has its own failure pattern. The combination below is what audits, complaints, and lawsuits in this sector keep returning to. Fixing them clears the most-cited issues without touching every page.

• Session timeouts without warning

  Banks set short timeouts; without 2.2.1 timeout warnings, users with cognitive disabilities lose work mid-transfer.

  2.2.1

• Inaccessible OTP and 2FA flows

  Auto-advancing 6-digit OTP fields and biometric prompts often skip keyboard and screen reader support.

  2.1.1, 4.1.2

• Statement PDFs that are scanned images

  Account statements delivered as scanned PDFs are unreadable by screen readers.

  1.1.1, 1.3.1

A short remediation checklist

Most Banking & Financial Services teams do not need a 200-item audit before they fix anything. They need an ordered list of the highest-impact moves. Start with these and re-audit after each pass.

• Audit login flows including 2FA paths

• Test session timeout warnings with assistive tech

• Verify statement PDFs are tagged and text-based

• Review every error message for inline + announced status

Frequently asked questions

Other industries