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The Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) has conducted an investigation into the amounts that prepaid cardholders spend each month to conduct essential financial transactions, and compared that to the amounts that they would spend if they remained underbanked ...

More than one-third of the 40 million underbanked individuals in the United States would rather use a prepaid card than a checking account for basic financial transactions if costs were equal. Underbanked consumers say they appreciate the convenience, transparency, ...

The CFSI inBrief, “Preferences and Usage of Financial Services Providers,” is the newest and latest data released from the CFSI Underbanked Consumer Study. This inBrief takes a deeper look at how consumer usage of financial services providers measures up to ...

Having recognized the great opportunity underbanked consumers represent for financial services, participants at the Third Annual Underbanked Financial Services Forum turned their attention to better understanding this potential market. The forum, presented by SourceMedia in conjunction with the Center ...

Inform your underbanked strategy with the Prepaid Cards vs. Checking Accounts inBrief and take advantage of this newly released segmentation data.  Do you want to bring more underbanked consumers into deeper financial relationships with your institution/organization? Then, you should ...

The purpose of the study was to conduct a segmentation analysis of underbanked and unbanked consumers based on attitudes, behaviors and experiences relative to both formal and informal financial services, products, and institutions.  Four industry leaders co-sponsored the study ...

Financial institutions have begun to recognize the enormous potential in serving underbanked households, but it is becoming clear that attracting these consumers is no simple task. KeyBank, which began offering check-cashing services and complementary educational curricula for non-customers in 2004, ...

As financial institutions seek new customers in an age of increasing competition, it is becoming ever more important to be able to differentiate among underserved populations and appropriately evaluate risk metrics. Financial institutions may be missing entire segments of potential ...

Increasingly, the financial services industry is considering the potential of underbanked consumers, as demonstrated by the sold out crowd of over 400 attendees at the Underbanked Financial Services Forum, held in June 2006 and produced by CFSI and SourceMedia. The ...

During the BAI Retail Delivery Conference and Expo in November 2005, CFSI conducted an informal survey of financial service companies' interests in and experience with the underbanked market. The survey results can be found here.

On June 30, 2005, the Ford Foundation hosted a gathering of 22 policy advocates, issue experts, foundation program officers, and private sector representatives to help identify the gaps in the current financial services system, and to begin charting some possible ...

This paper provides an overview of South Africa’s unbanked problem based on the existing financial services landscape, describes the role of the South African government in addressing the problem, and highlights trends in financial services innovation in the private sector. ...

The survey described in this report, conducted by ShoreBank Advisory Services in 2003 and 2004 in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Chicago, provides the basis for a financial services segmentation of the low- and moderate-income population in those three cities. ...

Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) seeks out and funds the most innovative nonprofits providing financial services to this market. In 2005, CFSI received almost 1,000 inquiries that yielded just under 100 applications for funding. While four projects were selected ...

In 2003 and 2004, MetroEdge conducted a survey of the financial behavior and attitudes of low- and moderate-income households in Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, DC. While the results are consistent with prior research findings that this population is less ...

The research that laid the foundation for CFSI argues that the interests of the financial services industry and low-income consumers are converging. The paper also presents evidence that this development can benefit both financial services firms and the underbanked market, ...

During the BAI Retail Delivery Conference and Expo in November 2004, CFSI conducted an informal survey of financial service companies' interests in and experience with the underbanked market. The survey results can be found here.