Amid the call to banks to offer bank accounts that could help low-income households, Santander Bank has started offering a consumer checking account to serve the underbanked and help them achieve their financial goals.
East Cambridge Savings Bank has launched three products designed to help consumers access bank accounts and build credit.
With the pandemic shining a light on the challenges faced by households that lack banking relationships, four credit unions, including two in New England, have joined together to launch a mobile app that they say could help address the problem.
Marlborough-based Digital Federal Credit Union, better known as DCU, has joined forces with three other credit unions to launch a challenger bank targeted at low- to moderate-income customers.
Expanded federal anti-poverty aid during the pandemic has been hailed by advocates as something that could lift millions above the poverty line, but for some, its success could hinge on whether they have access to a bank account.
Berkshire Bank has joined the national Bank On initiative to reach unbanked and underbanked consumers by offering a checking account with no overdraft charges or monthly maintenance fees.
The Biden administration has announced that it will make financial equity, diversity and inclusion a priority. One specific initiative focuses on increasing access to the unbanked and underbanked through postal banking and the digital dollar wallet.
The pandemic has shown the challenges many low-income households face from not having banking relationships, including delays in receiving critical funds, costs for using alternative services and struggles navigating the Paycheck Protection Program.
The city of Boston has added another partner to its initiative to provide checking accounts to the city’s unbanked and underbanked residents.
From the pandemic’s effects on business customers and digital acceleration to conversations about racial inequalities in the industry, the year 2020 saw banking and lending confronting possibly long-lasting changes to the industry.
Developing new products with CDFIs and other nontraditional financial institutions will limit risk to banks and open doors to new customer bases in a responsible way.
Since George Floyd’s death, many banks have leapt forward with billions in pledges to communities of color. Those actions should be praised, but lenders must look beyond addressing racial diversity and economic inequality with charity if they want to thrive in a changing America.
More Americans than ever obtained a basic bank account in 2019, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Monday. But data was gathered before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and start of this historic recession.
The coronavirus crisis shows the need for more banks and credit unions to help poor and working-class Massachusetts residents develop banking relationships, both bankers and advocates say.
With hundreds of thousands out of work in Massachusetts, the executive director of Boston-based nonprofit Commonwealth, Timothy Flacke, sees ways for banks and credit unions to help build financial security, even during a crisis.
Malia Lazu joined Berkshire Bank a mere 10 months ago with no prior banking experience. But in that short time, she’s become a driving force in the bank’s efforts to transform its workplace culture – and a regional president.
Roxann Cooke is the New England regional director of JPMorgan Chase, which recently made a big splash in the state by pledging to open 50 retail branches in the Greater Boston area. Approximately 30 percent of branches will be in low- to moderate-income communities.
One third of Bostonians live outside the traditional financial system, cutting them off from crucial financial tools like credit cards and savings accounts and helping to lock them out of economic mobility. To combat this Boston and Worcester, where numbers are similar, are partnering with financial institutions to offer checking accounts that are easier to access.
