Publications

“According to recently released data by the Federal Insurance Deposit Corporation (FDIC), at least 28% of American households—roughly 93 million people—either have no bank accounts (the “unbanked”) or are at least partially dependent upon high-cost services like payday lending (the “underbanked”) (FDIC 2014). Excluded from orthodox financial institutions, the unbanked and underbanked pay dearly for basic financial services. In 2012, the income for the average underbanked household was about $25,500, but it spent an average of nearly $2,500 solely on interest and fees for alternative financial services (AFS) like payday lending. That is almost 10 percent of their annual income—about as much as they spent on food.”