“The U.S. Postal Service quietly began offering paycheck-cashing services at several East Coast post offices last month, testing a plan that financial experts say has the potential to transform how low-wage and underserved Americans access their money.  Postal customers can now redeem paychecks in Washington, Baltimore, Falls Church, Va., and the Bronx, for Visa gift cards topping out at $500, an agency spokesperson said. Postal officials expect to expand the pilot into a fuller study with more locations and financial products, such as bill-paying services and ATMs, according to three people involved with the program who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive business strategy.”

“A new report, Delivering Financial Products and Services to the Unbanked and Underbanked in the United States – Challenges and Opportunities, from six trade groups outlines the obstacles and viable solutions for improving financial inclusion, providing access to bank accounts to the unbanked population in the United States, which currently represents approximately 6% of U.S. households, and for reducing utilization of high-cost non-bank financial products and services. The paper identifies the chief reasons for individuals being unbanked/underbanked and highlights existing actions from banks, credit unions, non-profits, and policymakers that have shown promise in addressing the challenge of bringing individuals more fully into the banking system. The paper also makes recommendations that policy makers should consider moving forward. The paper is authored by The Clearing House, the American Bankers Association, the Consumer Bankers Association, the Credit Union National Association, the Mid-Sized Bank Coalition of America, and the National Bankers Association.”

“As underbanked and unbanked consumers use payment apps to conveniently send cash to others, manage their money better, and access otherwise out-of-reach financial services, these tools can also come with costly fees, a lack of customer service, and cybersecurity risks. If left unaddressed, payment apps could further replicate offline inequality for unbanked or underbanked users.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic was a disruptor in the purest startup sense. The immediate shift to remote work, school, and socially distanced ways of life accelerated innovation by an estimated five years . Inequalities were laid bare across countless aspects of daily life, exposing some difficult truths. Among them: financial technology (fintech) and how developments on this front left the underbanked behind, exposing critical gaps in our financial systems. Certainly, there were great launches and the public offerings of some amazing infrastructure innovations during 2020. The pandemic forced all of us who participate in the space of developing tech that seeks to improve and automate the delivery and use of financial services — from startups to the biggest institutional finance companies — to think differently about how we deliver these services.”

“Cebuana Lhuillier Rural Bank, the banking arm of the Microfinancial Services giant, Cebuana Lhuillier and UnionPay International (UPI) have teamed up to launch the Cebuana Lhuillier 24K card – a new Debit Card designed to empower unbanked and underbanked consumers in the Philippines to afford financial mobility for their day to day lives.”

“More than one in four Americans lack adequate access to credit. Nationally, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) reports that 6.5 percent of households are unbanked and 18.7 percent are underbanked. How can this be remedied? One option that NPQ has covered would be to activate the US postal system to provide limited banking services, a practice that is common in other countries and was practiced in the US itself from 1911 to 1967. At the federal level, US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has been a leading advocate.”

“The Amazon Credit Builder card will function as a secured credit card, but with the same benefits as Amazon’s Store Card. When opening the card, as with any secured card, consumers must make a refundable security deposit with Amazon’s partner on the financial product, Synchrony Bank. That deposit will then represent the card’s credit limit. Consumers can establish credit lines ranging from a minimum of $100 to a maximum of $1,000.”

“According to government data, close to 7 percent of American households have no one in them with a checking or savings account, while an additional 19 percent are considered “underbanked,” meaning that they rely on products or services outside the conventional financial system. These include money orders and payday and pawnshop loans. The majority of people who fall into these categories are nonwhite.”

“Together, the organizations will launch a new line of credit product that the parties believe will be more flexible and transparent than others in the market, and well-suited for US-based underbanked consumers. CURO and Meta expect to unveil the new, joint brand and a timeline for the pilot launch later this year.”