News Topic: underbanked

The CDFI formerly known as Progreso Financiero targets consumers with little or no credit history. ... Read full article

Many low-wage employees continue to be paid by paper check. WiseWage has built an online portal on the idea that workers and their employers have a shared interest in electronic paychecks. ... Read full article

Regional and community banks will offer low-cost or no-cost financial products through Bank On, which has already reached agreements with Regions Bank, Wells Fargo and SunTrust. ... Read full article

U.S. Reps. Gwen Moore and Paul Cook introduced a bill this week would allow more credit unions to expand their fields of membership to underserved communities. ... Read full article

Grupo Coppel and Insikt, an online lender, would appear to be cut from different cloth, but they share an expertise in providing credit to working-class, largely Hispanic consumers. The retail conglomerate also operates 1,000 bank branches in Mexico, ... Read full article

House and Senate bills contain a provision that would let financial firms in all states use digital scans of photo IDs to verify identities of prospective customers. That could ease the account-opening process for consumers in areas where branches are few ... Read full article

OneUnited is trimming branches and expanding digital offerings as it builds its brand as a backer of social justice that develops innovative products such as a Black-Lives-Matter-themed debit card. ... Read full article

The short-term loan industry is suddenly playing offense in Washington following Mick Mulvaney's appointment as acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. ... Read full article

Carver Bancorp, which has spent 70 years serving minorities in Harlem and surrounding neighborhoods, is struggling to turn a profit. As black-run banks nationwide struggle to stay afloat, Carver's CEO insists the institution is on the right track. ... Read full article

Evidence that the credit characteristics of online installment borrowers at the time of repayment are consistently worse than at the time of borrowing should be a sobering thought for lenders that have not been fully tested in a credit downturn. ... Read full article

The Cleveland Fed's conclusion that U.S. consumers are typically worse off after getting online loans encountered strong pushback from their advocates. ... Read full article

Consumers who have borrowed from online lenders owe more and have lower credit scores than similarly situated consumers who have not used online lenders, according to a study released Thursday by the Cleveland Fed. The provocative findings seem likely to ... Read full article

Rather than pull up stakes and leave two low-income Mississippi towns at the mercy of payday lenders, Regions Bank donated the branches to a local credit union and kicked in another $500,000 for operating costs. ... Read full article

Bill Donnelly was named the first-ever finance chief at San Francisco-based LendUp. ... Read full article

Capital Corps, led by Steven Sugarman, aims to provide financing to homeowners and small businesses that it believes are overlooked by banks. The firm features several former Banc of California executives. ... Read full article

The company, which recently bought Sabadell United in Miami, is pledging to make billions of dollars in mortgages and small business loans in low- and moderate-income communities. ... Read full article

Deserve is offering unsecured cards to young adults who do not have traditional credit scores. The Silicon Valley startup uses a proprietary algorithm that analyzes bank account activity to evaluate the likelihood that borrowers will repay. ... Read full article

TD Bank has pledged $3 million to provide credit counseling to small-business owners. The hope is that those owners will use commercial loans to replace personal credit cards and home equity as their primary forms of business funding. ... Read full article