Report, Financial Access For
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FINANCIAL ACCESS FOR ALL Putting Banking within Reach through a Universal Account System FINANCIAL ACCESS FOR ALL: PUTTING BANKING WITHIN REACH THROUGH A UNIVERSAL ACCOUNT SYSTEM 2 Financial Access for All: Putting Banking within Reach through a Universal Account System AUTHORS | Myrto Karaflos, Bessie Bauman and Joanna Ain Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Prosperity Now’s Doug Ryan and David Newville, who reviewed this report and provided helpful feedback. We are grateful to Sandiel Thornton on our Communications team, who designed the report and graphics. We would also like to thank our external reviewer, Aaron Klein from the Brookings Institution, for giving valuable feedback and insights on this report. Finally, we are grateful to the Yale Institute of Social and Policy Studies Director's Fellowship, which supports Yale undergraduate students conducting research on U.S. domestic policy. Bessie Bauman was a 2020 Director's Fellow. Prosperity Now Prosperity Now believes that everyone deserves a chance to prosper. Since 1979, we have helped millions of people, especially people of color and those of limited incomes, to achieve financial security, stability and, ultimately, prosperity. We offer a unique combination of practical solutions, in-depth research and proven strategies, all aimed at building wealth for those who need it most. We recognize the devastating impact of the racial wealth divide on people and our economy, and we strive to equip organizations of color and others with the capacity, tools and cultural competency necessary to address structural and systemic barriers facing families of color. Gary Cunningham is our President and CEO. 3 FINANCIAL ACCESS FOR ALL: PUTTING BANKING WITHIN REACH THROUGH A UNIVERSAL ACCOUNT SYSTEM INTRODUCTION Approximately 63 million adults in the United States are financially underserved, left with little to no access to banking or credit services.1 About 14 million of those adults are unbanked, meaning that they do not have access to bank or credit union accounts.2 The other 49 million adults are underbanked, meaning that they may have a bank account but also rely on alternative financial services, like check- cashing services and payday loans, in order to manage their finances.3 The magnitude of financial exclusion in the U.S. is large, and it is disproportionately harmful to low-income households and households of color.4 Without sufficient access to mainstream financial services at reasonable cost, millions of households are left without safe vehicles to save, plan for the future and climb the economic ladder. Furthermore, when households lack access to products like bank accounts, state and federal governments have difficulty providing direct assistance to those in need. In fact, in April 2020, millions of households without straightforward access to bank accounts faced difficulty receiving their Economic Impact Payments (EIPs)—stimulus payments which were meant to reduce households' financial burdens and prop up the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. While many households with bank accounts received their payments via direct deposit, those without accounts had to wait weeks longer for paper checks. Additionally, financially underserved households faced other challenges, including the decreased use of cash by businesses, the costliness of using alternative financial services and the loss of part of their stimulus payments because of overdraft fees. These obstacles made it harder for them to get the help they were entitled to in order to weather the COVID-19 pandemic. FINANCIAL ACCESS FOR ALL: PUTTING BANKING WITHIN REACH THROUGH A UNIVERSAL ACCOUNT SYSTEM 4 Lower-Income Households Need Better Access to Safe Financial Products and Services Given the significant number of unbanked and underbanked individuals, there is a clear need for more equitable access to mainstream financial In April 2020, millions products and services, such as bank accounts. Lower-income households, which tend to be the most impacted by financial exclusion, stand to of households benefit the most. Access to banking can help without straightforward them manage their day-to-day financial lives, reduce costs related to alternative financial access to bank accounts services and even build wealth. faced difficulty receiving Mobile banking can help families better manage their Economic Impact their finances. Mobile bank accounts make receiving direct payments from the government, Payments (EIPs), which like EIPs and tax refunds, quicker and safer. They were meant to reduce also offer convenience, allowing families to check their balances within seconds. In this day and households' financial age, a bank account offers a host of tools for burdens and prop up the making financial security simpler. Those without these tools often face barriers in managing their economy during the money, writing checks and even paying bills. The COVID-19 pandemic. 2016 Federal Reserve Consumer and Mobile Finance Survey shows that many mobile banking users who receive low-balance alerts from their banks reported taking some action in response, such as transferring money into the account with the low balance (43%), depositing money into the account (36%), or reducing their spending (32%).5 These reminders, along with other mobile banking features, help families quickly and easily make decisions about their financial health. This report also shows that nearly 40% of unbanked and 70% of underbanked households owned mobile phones, demonstrating that a lack of financial access, more so than technological access, is a key driver in financial exclusion.6 Alternative financial services are often financially damaging to lower-income households, particularly those of color. When households do not have access to mainstream financial services, they often must turn to alternative financial services, such as payday loans and check-cashing services. Not all alternative financial services are damaging; for some households, they are a necessary alternative to mainstream ones. However, they are typically quite expensive. In 2014, a survey administered by the U.S. Postal Service found that the average amount a financially underserved household spent on fees and interest from alternative financial services was $2,412 per year, nearly 10% of their average income.7 5 FINANCIAL ACCESS FOR ALL: PUTTING BANKING WITHIN REACH THROUGH A UNIVERSAL ACCOUNT SYSTEM Moreover, some of these products and services, like payday loans, can be predatory. Payday loans, which individuals use to make payments before their paychecks arrive, can have interest rates as high as 1,000%.8 Typically, payday lenders require bank account information, which can result in overdraft fees or account closure in the event that the customer cannot pay back the loan. Furthermore, payday loans can damage a household’s credit, and lenders often use harsh debt collection practices.9 These practices trap consumers in a vicious cycle of making payments toward interest and fees, rather than toward their loan principal. Alternative financial services like payday loans also do not help households build their credit history and scores, further limiting their access to cheaper and more mainstream sources of credit. Black and Latinx households are most vulnerable to increased costs and predatory lending because they are more likely to be unbanked10 and because high-cost lenders are much more aggressive in minority markets.11 Beyond payday loans, financially underserved households also utilize check-cashing and money order services to access their paychecks and make payments. These services also charge fees, which could be avoided if households had access to a mainstream bank account. Creating universal and safe financial products could help consumers avoid the danger and compounding costs of alternative financial services. These products can also help communities of color manage income volatility, which they are more likely to face than White households.12 Safe financial products and services can support households in building wealth. Without access to safe and effective financial services, millions of families are missing out on opportunities to build wealth. For example, financially underserved households may not be able to enroll in high-yield savings accounts or manage their financial health online with just a few clicks. Furthermore, some wealth- building programs have offered bank accounts to participants in order to help them increase their savings. For example, the Assets for Independence (AFI) program13, administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for almost 20 years, provided a federal platform where partners all across the country could help individuals open matched savings accounts, called Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). Through this program, 100,000 IDAs were opened, and participants saved over $100 million in these accounts until the program was defunded in 2017.14 The AFI program was successful in helping households build savings and wealth. However, our current financial system makes it cumbersome for organizations, such as nonprofits and Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), to launch wealth-building programs since accounts can be difficult to coordinate across financial institutions. With universal financial access and a streamlined platform for digital accounts, these organizations could more easily launch matched savings and other wealth-building programs to reach those in need. FINANCIAL ACCESS FOR ALL: PUTTING BANKING