Getting a Handle on America's Underbanked
January 9, 2013 By Patti Murphy According to the 2011 National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households on in 12 American households, representing at least 51 million adults, is underbanked....
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Senators Blast Bank Payday Loans
January 10, 2013 by Patti Murphy. A group of ranking Democratic Senators - led by Connecticut's Richard Blumenthal - this week urged federal bank regulators to crack down on banks that offer loan...
View ArticleHow Well are Banks at Reaching Financially Underserved?
January 11, 2013 by Patti MurphyAnyone who still wonders why there are so many unbanked and underbanked in America here's the Number 1 reason: only 4 in 10 U.S. banks design products that address the...
View ArticlePayroll Cards Gain with Rising Tide of Unbanked & Underbanked
March 1, 2013 by Patti Murphy Payroll cards have been available for decades, but the market is really taking off now, with employers expected to load nearly $69 billion on to the cards in 2017, up from...
View ArticleBanking Giants Back Efforts to Boost Financial Inclusion
March 3, 2013 By Patti Murphy Banking giant Citicorp and Visa Inc., the card network, are backing the micro-lender Accion in a worldwide effort to accelerate financial inclusion. Financial Inclusion...
View ArticlePressure Mounts on Payday Lenders
To the growing list of adversaries of payday lenders add JPMorgan Chase. The mega-bank this week announced a series of moves intended to make it tougher for payday and other short-term lenders to...
View ArticleFeds Want Tighter Money Laundering Rules for Prepaid Debit Cards
Prepaid card are a great stand-in for cash. Annual payroll card loads alone are expected to reach $68.9 billion by 2017, according to a new report from Aite Group. That’s more than twice the total...
View ArticleMobility Can Help Bank Underdserved, Sometimes
Mobile banking and payments are a growing part of the commercial landscape. Also a popular and cost-effective way to mainstream the financially underserved. Especially here in the U.S.According to the...
View ArticleRegulators Eye Bank Payday Lending
The nation's lead bank regulators want banks to think twice before they get involved with payday lending. Supervisory "guidance" proposed this week by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency...
View ArticleUnderstanding the Underbanked
Atlanta-based FactorTrust is partnering with FICO, the credit scoring folks, to produce a new quarterly report on underbanked Americans in hopes that it will lead to more and better credit decisions...
View ArticleTech Companies Find Greenfield Opps In Underserved Markets
May 18, 2013There is a common perception that unbanked and underbanked consumers (collectively, the "financially underserved")are poor. This may be the case in some countries (notably those in the...
View ArticleChanging Names Reflect New Market Dynamics
June 13, 2013Last week the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) announced it was changing the name of its flagship event, the Underbanked Financial Services Forum. The new name - Emerge: the...
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Employers Face Blowback Over Payroll Cards
Reloadable prepaid debit cards are becoming bank accounts for a new generation of consumers. These consumers are younger, tech-savvy, and they want anytime, anyplace access to their accounts. They are...
View ArticleUnderbanked Trifecta: Strivers, Millennials & the Debanked
When I began this blog, in 2009, the notion that nearly a fifth of American households had little to no interaction with federally insured financial institutions wasn't much of a conversation starter....
View ArticleBlow Back Over Payroll Cards Reaches Washington
The blow back over payroll cards just became heftier. An influential group of U.S. Senators wants federal investigations into fees and practices associated with these reloadable prepaid debit cards...
View ArticleInternational Remittances: New Models Offer Some Growth
International remittances between consumers is a large and growing market. New branchless models are contributing to the growth, but not overwhelmingly. According to a new report by CGAP (the...
View ArticleCrackdown on Payday Lenders that Skirt Restrictions
Saturday, August 10, 2013Payday lenders have operated below the radar for years. Not anymore. These days at least 7 state and federal agencies are scrutinizing payday lenders, especially those making...
View ArticleGoing Mainstream: Underbanked are Becoming Alternatively Banked
Wednesday, September 11, 2013There's a movement afoot to deep-six labels like "unbanked" and "underbanked" in favor of a more inclusive moniker, like alternatively banked. It's easy to see why: hardly...
View ArticleFighting Global Poverty through More Inclusive Payment Systems
Can electronic payment systems be adapted to improve access to financial services in the developing world? A new report from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation says Yes, and that it can be done in...
View ArticleState, Federal Crackdowns Targetting Online Payday Lenders Intensify
State and federal regulators are turning up the heat on companies making payday loans online and claiming they are immune from laws against such loans because they are operated by Native American...
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USPS Seeks Financial Lifeline Serving the Underbanked
Postal bank services truckHere's a conversation the time for which has come: allow the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to offer financial services. It's not a novel idea. After all, USPS already sells...
View ArticleFederal Watchdog Finds Fault with Payday Lenders
As if there were any doubt before, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reports that the payday lending business is fraught with problems. A document released last week discussing supervisory...
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