A savings program sponsored by the Financial Service Centers of America, the country’s largest check-cashing trade group, has generated $5 million of deposits in its first six months.
The All-Access Savings Program links a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-insured, interest-bearing savings account to a prepaid debit card, which customers can purchase at participating check-cashing stores. There they can load money on the card and make deposits into the linked savings account.
Hank Shyne, the executive director of the Financial Service Centers of America, whose members operate about 6,000 check-cashing stores, said Wednesday that the results have exceeded the group’s expectations. “We were venturing into unknown territory with this,” he said. “A lot of our customers live from paycheck to paycheck, so we were unsure what the response would be.”
The trade group’s bank partner is the $1.1 billion-asset Inter National Bank in Laredo, Tex., which keeps the All-Access deposits in a single aggregate account. Individual depositors’ money is divided into subaccounts.
