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About Bank Talk
Bank Talk is a blog about the alternative financial products that serve the un-banked population in America. There are more households out there without access to bank accounts that one might assume from a first glance. The FDIC says that about 40 million Americans live in households without a bank account. Industry estimated are even higher, ranging from 70 million to 110 million, depending upon how the un-banked and under-banked are defined. These consumers use check cashers regularly. Many get credit from unusual sources: refund anticipation loans, payday loans, pawn shops, and their friendly uncle.
The alternative financial services industry is changing rapidly. Bank executives indicate that they plan to cut back on free checking in the near future. Increasingly, the unbanked use prepaid cards for many of the basic services offered to holders of checking accounts. They keep deposits on these cards, use them at ATMs or point of purchase kiosks, and even access them for credit.
It's fun to talk about behavioral economics, and the Bank Talk blog certainly does some of that. Bank Talk's main focus, though, is going to be how money intersects with the lives of regular people. It's more empirical than theoretical, more concrete than abstract, more country than city, more Sonny than Cher.
Bank Talk returns to a few favorites time and time again. Some of the hot topics include:
- The Unbanked
- Refund Anticipation Loans
- The Community Reinvestment Act
- The Earned Income Tax Credit
- Subprime Lending
- Credit Cards
- The Big Banks: Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and JP Morgan Chase
Bank Talk is written by Adam Rust, the Research Director here at the Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina. Adam earned a master’s degree in City Planning from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Email Adam.