Access to Banking for the Low-income

Posted on December 3, 2009 by townsend

• 25.6% of U.S. households use conventional banks little or not at all, By Tiffany Hsu, December 3, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “More than a quarter of American households have limited or no interaction with conventional banks, making it more difficult for those families to establish credit, according to the first-ever federal survey of how consumers use financial services. The survey, released Wednesday, found that 25.6% of households — 30 million in all — did not use basic banking services last year or relied on alternative services, such as high- interest payday loans, to get needed cash. Those so-called unbanked and underbanked Americans are disproportionally low-income and minority families, including more than half of black households, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. survey…”
• FDIC: Poor, minorities struggle to access banks, By Daniel Wagner (AP), December 2, 2009, Wisconsin State Journal: “More than a million American households lost access to basic banking services like savings accounts last year, bank regulators say. Those families are among 30 million households that have little or no access to such services, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Poor, minority and immigrant families are especially hard-hit. In all, 25.6 percent of U.S. households either lack bank accounts or use payday loans, check-cashing services and other costly alternatives to traditional banks, according to the survey…”