Demographics

Fiserv Inc. is working to offer its walk-in bill-payment service in branches of banks that are trying to reach the underbanked, a large and potentially lucrative market.

MIAMI — Despite a slowdown in the growth of international remittance volumes that began last year, Wells Fargo & Co. said its remittance business achieved triple-digit growth in the 12 months through May, reflecting what it sees as an ongoing shift to banks from nonbank providers.

MIAMI — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has sold more than 1 million of its prepaid MoneyCards, and customers have loaded more than $1 billion on to them, since they were introduced nearly a year ago, said Jane Thompson, the president of the retailer's financial services business.

The financial services landscape has changed dramatically in the last decade, and understanding the changes is critical to building underbanked initiatives.

Zions Bancorp. said that a five-year-old Zions Bank marketing initiative targeting Hispanics is bearing fruit and that the company is adding new features to the effort.

For years payday lenders have downplayed their profitability, as one might expect from an industry that consumer advocates have long pointed to as predatory.

Online Resources Corp. is linking its network to those of money-services businesses to attract the unbanked and expand its expedited bill payment system.

The Pew Charitable Trusts has started a project to develop and promote bank account standards for the underbanked.

The Treasury Department's blueprint to overhaul the financial regulatory system is aimed largely at macro-level concerns like investment bank oversight and market stability.

Western Union Co. is banking on a major restructuring of its U.S. operations to boost its profit margins by the end of next year.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has begun a voluntary survey aimed at assessing institutions' efforts to reach out to underbanked communities.

A company that offers asset-protection devices to auto lenders has introduced a linked prepaid card that could encourage the unbanked to make their car payments on time and also prompt them to make other purchases electronically.

Hispanic consumers and business owners are not saving and borrowing as much as bankers had hoped.

Several years ago Pennsylvania Rep. Dwight Evans championed an initiative to bring grocery stores to low-income neighborhoods across the state, and now he hopes to do the same with banks.

In a shift that makes its model comparable to the person-to-person transfer services widely available online, the mobile phone payment company Obopay Inc. is letting people send money to and from any bank account rather than requiring them to maintain a separate, prepaid account.

Payment Reporting Builds Credit Inc., which runs a repository of alternative credit information, and the National Credit Reporting Association have taken steps to preserve the use of nontraditional data to evaluate consumers with little or no traditional credit history.

The alternative credit bureau Pay Rent Build Credit Inc. is using information from the bill payment software company Billeo Inc. to establish credit scores for people with thin or no credit histories.

The remittance service Bank of New York Mellon Corp. developed for other banks to offer under their own brands is part of an effort to beef up such white-label offerings, particularly those involving small-dollar transactions.

With global financial markets wavering, Fed interest rates fluctuating, and the subprime mortgage fallout continuing, the health of the world's banks and financial markets dominated discussions at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. This year's meeting focused on the concept of "collaborative innovation" and how it may be harnessed to better the everyday lives of people around the world.

Citigroup Inc.'s acquisition of a remittance outsourcer underscores the company's aspirations to expand its role as a global facilitator of transactions between financial institutions.