GAITHERSBURG, Md.-This Washington, D.C., suburb and seven other cities are looking for credit unions and banks to offer unbanked residents lifeline savings accounts as part of a new National League of Cities campaign to encourage low-income families to begin banking with mainstream financial institutions.
The Bank on Cities campaign is modeled after Bank on San Francisco, an initiative that added tens of thousands of underserved people to CU and banking rolls and launched in other cities, including Houston, San Antonio and Los Angeles.
The League of Cities is offering technical assistance and funding to roll out similar programs now in Indianapolis; St. Petersburg, Fla.; Newark, N.J.; Denver, Colo.; Bryan, Texas; Rapid City, S.D., and Gaithersburg, a suburb 25 miles west of the nation's capital.
