by Ron Shevlin
It’s time to kill the Unbanked. The label, not the people.
A Knowledge@Wharton post titledA Question of Value: Bringing Banks to the Unbankedcontains a number of statements that bear a closer degree of scrutiny.
K@W:“One quarter of all Americans households are not maximizing their banks’ services — or going to a bank at all — choosing instead to use such substitutes as check cashers, payday lenders and refund anticipation loans. [T]hese 34 million households are ostensibly on the radar of banks that could gain them as customers.”
My take:First off, if “these 34 million households are on the radar of banks that could gain them as customers,” then how could they be “not maximizing their banks’ services” if they don’t do business with banks? Second, why is it assumed that a customer who uses an alternative financial service provider is “not maximizing” their bank’s services? Payday lending rates may be high, but direct deposit advances offered by banks and credit unions aren’t exactly bargains. Assuming that one’s bank could provide a service better than that offered by an alternative financial services providers is not a defensible assumption.
