Posted on April 17, 2013 by Terrence Isert

In an effort to increase financial inclusion under a 2005 federal law, the FDIC  is attempting to bring more of those excluded or under-included back into the formal banking financial system in the US. A 2011 survey published last fall by the FDIC and US Census Bureau found that unbanked households in the US rose slightly by 821,000 over a two-year period.  In fact, the survey found that nearly 1 in 4 of all households in the US were found to be unbanked or under-banked, defined as anyone in a household who doesn’t have access to some type of bank account or any accounts at all. Many turn instead to non-mainstream options such as payday lenders or non-bank money-orders to meet their financial services needs. In the US, minorities  are disproportionately excluded with as many half of minority households reported to be unbanked. Financial inclusion is not new or limited to the US. The estimates may vary worldwide, however as recently as 2012 the World Bank calculated that 2.5 billion adults remained unbanked or underserved  although defined more broadly as “no access to any formal financial services, products or institutions”. With the linkages between access to financial services and poverty, even a savings account provides a route to economic stability for many poor households and a potential path out of poverty.