Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen unveiled a plan Tuesday designed to ensure more Americans have bank accounts and affordable credit, outcomes that she argues will create a stronger and more equitable economy.
The initiative is part of the first-ever strategy by the Treasury Department to increase access to the financial system for Americans, as requested by Congress in 2023.
“For the first time, Treasury’s strategy provides a national roadmap to expand access to foundational financial tools like credit and investments that are key to building wealth,” Yellen said. “Implementing these recommendations will help more families build financial security and get ahead.”
First on her list of objectives embedded in a 35-page “national strategy for financial inclusion in the United States” is finding more ways for governments and financial institutions to encourage people to open transaction accounts at banks backstopped by federal deposit insurance. It’s a strategy designed to reduce the number of “unbanked.”
An estimated nearly 6 million US households did not have a bank account at a bank or credit union, according to the most recent 2021 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation national survey of unbanked and underbanked households.
Bank account ownership varies significantly by household demographic, including, race, income, and gender.
While just 2.1% of white households lacked a bank account in 2021, 11.3% of Black households, 9.3% of Hispanic households, and 6.9% of American Indian or Alaska native households lacked an account, according to the FDIC survey.
Treasury is proposing that the federal government work with local governments to encourage people to open accounts when they get new jobs, a government payment, or a tax refund.
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When the federal government issued payments to consumers during the pandemic, those without bank account information with the IRS, including some of the most economically vulnerable, had to wait for the arrival of a paper check rather than a faster and more secure direct deposit.
Treasury is also asking banks to expand the availability of bank accounts that are affordable and tailored to meet the needs of underserved communities — avoiding high fees, overdraft charges, and minimum balance requirements.
One example cited by Yellen is the Reading Cooperative Bank in Massachusetts, led by former American Banker Association chair Julie Thurlow.
It has opened a new branch staffed with bilingual bankers in an immigrant community in Lawrence, Mass., providing loans to finance housing redevelopment and new financial products.
