An overwhelming majority of survey respondents – 93% – said that reaching underbanked consumers is important or very important to the future of the financial services industry

Chicago, IL (March 9, 2011) – Today, the Center for Financial Services Innovation announced the results from its first effort to catalog all existing financial products and services aimed at the underbanked population: the Underbanked Industry Scan. Through a survey to a spectrum of suppliers to the underbanked market, CFSI gathered information including new details about specific product offerings, provider results, and customer usage of products. High-level findings include:

•   The market for underbanked services is anticipated to grow in the next two years, and providers plan to expand their product offerings           accordingly.
•  For-profit respondents are more optimistic about growth in the underbanked financial services market– and growth in overall customer demand – than nonprofits.
•  Slightly more than half of respondents expect overall competition for underbanked consumers to increase.
•  For-profit respondents were significantly more likely than nonprofit respondents to indicate that competition will increase.

Read more below.