Underbanked

Community banks have left the remittance business mostly to large banks and money-services businesses, but a Washington consumer finance company that largely targets Hispanics is trying to change that.

As banks and other financial services companies look for ways to profit by serving the country's estimated 40 million underbanked consumers, private-equity firms and hedge funds are scouting for opportunities in the sector as well.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has been late to the game of developing a Mexican remittance program, but on Wednesday it said it has completed the expansion of a pilot test to all its markets.

Financial services companies are paying closer attention to places like Albany, N.Y., and Toledo as they try to reach a growing population of underbanked Hispanic immigrants living in and around smaller U.S. cities.

Is 7-Eleven Inc., which has long said that convenient access to cash was a natural fit for its chain of convenience stores, pulling back from its banking vision?

A prepaid card venture between Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and General Electric Co. could give the companies a leg up on money transmitters, check-cashing outlets, and other financial services companies catering to the underbanked, an analyst said.

Two states are considering duplicating a program in New York that rewards banks with government deposits for opening branches in neighborhoods with little or no banking services.

Green Dot Corp. has signed an agreement with the authentication service provider CardinalCommerce Corp. that it expects to significantly boost online acceptance of its prepaid cards.

In replicating the for-profit microlending model that has worked for its namesakes in Bangladesh and six other developing countries, the start-up Grameen America Inc. faces several challenges.

Money transmitters that provide clear disclosures on rates and fees could earn the same type of brand approval used to endorse coffee beans and tuna fish.

A start-up payments vendor has developed a prepaid account that can be used without a card and enables people without credit or debit cards to use cash for online shopping.

First Bank and Trust in Brookings, S.D., has developed a prepaid debit card product that could open a door for community banks to gain new customers and boost fee income.

Financial companies and other vendors are increasingly pitching mobile payments as a method for unbanked immigrants to send remittances across borders, but analysts caution that the market remains immature.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. won a contract to provide reloadable prepaid cards to Rhode Island to replace unemployment checks.

Discover Financial Services has agreed to offer prepaid cards that can be reloaded through Green Dot Corp.'s network.