HOUSTON-Smart Financial Credit Union is participating in this city's "Bank on Houston" program to encourage consumers who use check-cashing and payday lending stores to use more traditional financial institutions such as banks and credit unions.
The Bank on Houston program, which was modeled after the highly successful Bank on San Francisco, is a collaborative effort of the City of Houston, the National League of Cities, the Federal Reserve Bank, 19 participating banks and credit unions, and many other organizations to bring the city's unbanked individuals into the financial mainstream.
The Program's main goals include raising awareness of the economic impact of being unbanked and working to find potential solutions as well as raising awareness among the unbanked consumers, especially the low to moderate income market, about the benefits of account ownership. Bank on Houston hopes to spur those consumers to open accounts by making quality money management education more readily available.
For info: www.bankonhouston.org, www.smartcu.org
