FDIC Announces A Decline In The Rate of Unbanked

This month, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) previewed results of the 2015 National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households which evaluates efforts to expand financial inclusion and integrate unbanked and underbanked Americans into the financial mainstream. The agency will release the full report in October, but this preview provides insights into key trends.  

Fewer Americans are going without bank accounts or access to basic financial services. In fact, the percentage of unbanked Americans fell to 7% in 2015. The proportion of unbanked households in 2015 was the lowest since the FDIC started the biennial survey in 2009.

These findings show that improvements in financial access are occurring widely. Unbanked rates among black and Hispanic households fell about 10 percentage points since 2013, to 18.2% and 16.2% respectively.

Low-income households are seeing improvements. The unbanked rate for households with less than $15,000 in annual income fell to 15.6% from 27.7%.

Stay tuned to find out even more about the state of financial inclusion in the U.S. The FDIC will release its full report on October 20th.