Helping The ‘Unbanked’: California Mulls Entering Banking Business To Serve Disadvantaged Consumers

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💡 Studies say 1 in 4 Californians lacks full access to banks and many pay big fees. A state commission is weighing how to provide public banking options, such as no-fee checking accounts.

Williams has joined California’s “unbanked” — some 7% of Californians who don’t have checking or savings accounts at traditional banks.

Lawmakers say they’re preparing to help. The state legislature passed a law in 2021 creating a commission to explore a public banking option calledCalAccount would be a state-run public bank, but the state would likely involve another bank or financial partner. It would offer such services as free checking, overdraft protection, ATM cards and savings accounts to people who are underserved by banks, state officials said.

“This is a critical distinction that must be made; individuals who utilize payday lenders and other high-cost loan products do so because they have inadequate cash flow, not because they lack access to banking services,” a coalition of business and banking groups wrote to legislators. James Hamilton, an economics professor at University of California San Diego, said where a public bank gets its money to lend and how transparent it is will be important.

“That is how the federal student loan program became a trillion-dollar public loss. California should not repeat the same mistake.”Being unbanked greatly impacts people of color and low-income families. Nearly 1 in 2 Black and Latino households in California is unbanked or underbanked, state officials said.

 

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EunissesH HugoForCD13 nithyavraman cd4losangeles BobBlumenfield TimMcOskerLA TraciParkforLA KatyForLA MarcoforLA mhdcd8 CW_HeatherHutt PaulKrekorian Where is the LA Public Bank? It's stuck in a committee and been stuck for 5 years.

publicbankla

This legislation may someday enable awarding a 'Good Housekeeping' seal of approval to commercial banks if they begin to meet the needs of the, yes, un- and underbanked communities.

The UNBANKED

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