Demographics

Proposed legislation that encourages utility companies to report positive payment data is just one way to improve underserved consumers' access to high-quality credit products they can truly afford.

Critics of nonbanks contend that consumers use "high-cost" alternatives because they are financially illiterate. But, like most simplistic conclusions, this one is seldom accompanied by facts and is as wrong as it is demeaning of the innate intelligence of these consumers.

A small number of alternative financial services providers would be permitted to operate nationwide and on the Internet without adequate policing of their products for underserved consumers.

Full-service bank customers have a tough time understanding the appeal of prepaid cards to the unbanked, and can't relate to feeling comfortable with all those fees. But it sure beats being surprised by them.

Wells Fargo says its remittance transaction volume grew at a record pace of 27% in 2011 over the prior year, thanks in part to substantial growth on the East Coast where the bank has largely finalized conversions of former Wachovia branches.

United Bankshares in Charleston, W. Va., and local organizations in the Washington area figured out that cooperating on a bike program could improve big-city commutes, recruit new customers and help the unbanked.

m-Via has built a mobile payment network designed to provide immigrants with a low-cost, safe alternative to higher-fee money transfer services like Western Union.

Some banks are starting to notice the poor customers they have long ignored. Regions Financial Corp. is one of several banks expanding its check-cashing and the other "alternative" financial services that have long been offered by Wal-Mart and other non-banks.

United Bank offers its underbanked customers checking accounts with...checks. The FDIC has even taken note of their unique approach.

Through a deal with money-transfer company UniTeller, Wells Fargo & Co. is expanding its remittance network by adding access points in Latin America and Asia, in an attempt to gain more money-transfer business from former Wachovia Corp. customers.

Visa Inc. has hired Gavin Krugel to work on its global mobile team, in an effort to reach unbanked consumers in developing economies.

Think Finance has hired William A. Kontgis as chief information officer to help develop products for the unbanked.

Regulators have longed encouraged banks to make small-dollar loans to people who otherwise lack access to credit. But testimony before Congress makes clear that their efforts are faltering.

An Ohio storefront alternative lender has filed for a $230 million initial public offering, as traditional banks maintain a tight-fisted approach to consumer lending.

In attempting to prevent abuses of the interchange cap exemption for reloadable prepaid cards, the Fed may have inadvertently scuttled an opportunity for banks to serve low-balance account holders.

Most prepaid cardholders are content with their cards, with nine out of 10 customers "extremely" or "very" satisfied with their prepaid cards. However, issuers could do more to keep customers for the long haul, research suggests.

A dearth of relationships with the underbanked has perpetuated the shortage of insight into how low-income consumers manage their finances. Enter the U.S. Financial Diaries.

American Express Co. is making its boldest move yet in the prepaid market by introducing a reloadable card that carries almost no fees.

Malhotra and his business partner, Yaron Ben-Zvi, Gratio's chief operating officer, got some powerful validation on Thursday, as nearly 300 attendees of the sixth Annual Underbanked Financial Services Forum in New Orleans selected GoalMine as the winner of the Core Underbanked Innovators Challenge.

New York State is considering legislation that would carve out an exception for check cashers from its 25% cap on interest rates for short-term loans, a move consumer advocates say is a backdoor attempt to allow payday lending in the nation's third-most populous state.