FDIC to Survey Banks on Efforts to Serve the Unbanked and Underbanked

Under section 7 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Conforming Amendments Act of 2005, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is required to conduct biennial surveys of insured depository institutions’ efforts to bring individuals and families who have rarely, if ever, held a checking account, a savings account or other type of transaction or check-cashing account at an insured depository institution into the conventional finance system.

As part of its activities in support of this mandate, during Spring of 2008, the FDIC will conduct a nationwide survey of FDIC-insured depository institutions to assess their efforts to serve unbanked and underbanked individuals and families. This survey is the first of its kind at the national level.

The FDIC is strongly committed to developing more and better data about unbanked and underbanked households, as well as the barriers that may be preventing them from using products and services that insured institutions provide. This survey should yield significant new insights about the opportunities for banks to meet the diverse financial needs of U.S. households.

In addition, in its continuing effort to bring unbanked and underbanked consumers into the economic mainstream, the FDIC also is exploring the feasibility of conducting, along with the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the first national household survey to collect data on the numbers and demographic characteristics of unbanked and underbanked households, as well as the barriers they perceive when deciding how and where to conduct financial transactions.

The bank survey is voluntary and will consist of mail-in survey questionnaires and case studies of a limited number of banks.

In early April 2008 survey questionnaires will be sent to a probability sample of approximately 1,300 FDIC-insured institutions. Questions will focus on banks’ financial education and outreach strategies; deposit, payment and credit products offered to entry-level consumers; and other related topics.

The survey is also designed to identify challenges insured institutions may face serving unbanked and underbanked customers. Case studies of specific institutions’ programs to serve the unbanked and underbanked will also be an important part of the survey. Case study candidates will retain the right to review the materials proposed for inclusion in the report or refuse permission to publish their results.

The FDIC has retained Dove Consulting to help administer the survey of banks. Dove Consulting will collect the survey results and report aggregated results to the FDIC. Survey responses will be kept strictly confidential and data that Dove Consulting provides to the FDIC will not be attributable to individual banks.

Survey results are expected to be included in a report to Congress from the Chairman of the FDIC and released to the public later this year.

Frequently Asked Questions and Survey Materials

The survey questionnaire and other materials can be downloaded below:

For any other questions or concerns about the survey please contact: unbanked-banksurvey@fdic.gov