I remember when my wife first moved to this country, it was extremely difficult for her to open a current account, I thought that the basic accounts would solve those problems and probably do.

They clearly don't solve all problems.

It is a bit odd though that this is the case as surely allowing people to use the accounts allow for the transactions to be traced, rather than the anonymity of cash.

Quite possibly there are good reasons, for the bank but on 5 hours of sleep so I can't come up with any :)