Bank Accounts

Add Evansville, Indiana to the list of communities adopting services for the unbanked. City leaders, in collaboration with a number of financial institutions, have set up a program called "Bank on Evansville." Similar to the "Bank on San Francisco" program currently up-and-running, this program will attempt to keep unbanked families from paying excessive check-cashing fees, which can total nearly $900 annually for some, according to the city.

Though details have yet to be finalized on the program (set to launch in 2009), many banks and credit unions are already offering accounts that require no minimum balance, as well as second-chance accounts for those who have lost one.

To be eligible for these accounts, the city is offering and requiring those who enroll to take a financial education course. Details of the course have yet to be finalized.

Partners include: Old National Bank, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the United Way of Southwestern Indiana, Integra Bank, Fifth Third Bank, the Bank of Evansville, Farmers State Bank, Evansville Commerce Bank, Heritage Federal Credit Union and the Evansville Teachers Federal Credit Union.

These programs provide much-needed financial education to those who need it most while providing many with a first-time opportunity to save and build up their asset base.

Last week I had the privilege of discussing asset building for lower income Americans in three very different settings: the annual Opportunity Economics Colloquium of the Hope Street Group, held at the Lansdowne Resort outside of Washington; an Assets Forum sponsored by the New America Foundation in the State Capitol in Sacramento, California; and with a group of financial services, social service and foundation representatives brought together by the City of Seattle. While the settings and audiences varied, the theme was the same: how to empower and encourage all Americans, particularly those who do not have funds either to cushion an economic setback or to invest to achieve economic security, to take sustainable first steps toward saving. Given the current financial crisis, one wishes these discussions had started ten years ago, but that same crisis makes it all the more important that they're happening now.