Demographics

The U.S. Postal Service offering financial services to the underserved would be a great idea. If the U.S. Postal Service weren't, you know, the U.S. Postal Service.

One could imagine a postal bank as a feeder service that brings unbanked consumers into the mainstream financial system and then graduates them to private institutions.

The Dodd-Frank Act and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau might end up denying crucial funds to nations emerging from war, a new study says.

Consumers deserve the kinds of high quality, widely accessible savings, credit and payments products and experiences that are critical ingredients in the recipe for financial health.

The very customer banks should be looking to for future loan and deposit growth receives more solicitations from AT&T or Sprint than she receives from her own bank.

The meaning of the term "underbanked" has evolved considerably over the last 30 years, and its definition today makes little sense.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

Politicians who blindly supported restrictive AML guidelines now proclaim disgust as a global bank severs relationships with firms that send money to Somalia. But Barclays is merely exercising understandable caution.

Overregulation and elimination of short-term credit alternatives will merely hurt consumers, particularly when criticism of existing products comes with no new solutions.

Too many banks still make too much money at the expense of their customers, and it is one of the biggest reasons the American public has lost faith in them.

Providers should link their products and services to information and tools that are relevant, timely, actionable and ongoing.

Empowering the unbanked to save and invest in themselves and others, through technology as simple as text- or Tweet-to-pay, will create opportunities to get people out of poverty.

Recreating this industry involves regulation that more effectively aligns the interests of lenders and borrowers, consumer education and outreach and market-driven solutions.

Many problems with payday products are concocted by activists and politicians with mercenary intent who are more interested in squelching innovation than letting people make choices for themselves.

Revisiting the way banks, credit unions and nonbank lenders operate (and collaborate) will offer choices, protections and a path to greater financial security.

Several tech startups have made short-term credit the focus of their business models. But could a product so universally frowned upon ever achieve mainstream acceptance?

More than two billion people worldwide do not have a bank account, but do have a mobile phone, making the device a direct conduit to an underserved demographic.

Why does an industry so often criticized for charging high fees to low-income consumers think it can win over critics by adding members of the 1% to the payroll?

Consumers who travel with debit or credit cards have no obligation to report their bank account balances or the size of their credit lines. Certainly those who rely on prepaid cards to access financial services should be entitled to the same rights.

The terms 'unbanked' and 'underbanked' perpetuate the erroneous notion that everyone needs a bank account and inhibit discussion of better ways to serve the financial needs of non-traditional consumers.