Some 60m adult Americans live without a bank account or use pawn shops and other non-bank operations to handle their finances, according to to a government reportthat called for an expansion of basic services to the “underbanked”.
The report, issued on Wednesday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, a banking regulator, could increase political pressure on banks to do more for their communities after unprecedented government efforts to bail out the sector.
“[There is] an imperative for government and industry to expand financial access to the substantial number of households that have never been banked,” the report concluded. Sheila Bair, FDIC chairman, said financial groups should offer tailored products to the underbanked.
The study, the first of its kind, lifts the lid on the vast banking underclass in the US, a country that prides itself on the sophistication of its banking sector.
The FDIC found that some 17m US adults are in households without any bank accounts. Another 43m had accounts but were “underbanked”, relying on non-bank services such as pay-day lenders and pawn shops.
