Page 12 - aruba-today-20221026

A12 BUSINESS
Wednesday 26 OctOber 2022
Record number of Americans have

bank accounts, gov’t says

By KEN SWEET
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — The num-
ber of Americans who do
not have a bank account
fell to a record low last
year, as the proliferation
of online-only banks and
an improving economy is
bringing more Americans
into the traditional finan-
cial system.
A new report from the
Federal Deposit Insur-
ance Corp. issued Tuesday
found that 4.5% of Ameri- Twenty dollar bills are counted on June 15, 2018, in North
cans representing approx- Andover, Mass.
imately 5.9 million house- Associated Press
holds were without a bank bank account, although garding banks. Major com-
account in 2021. That’s the those figures are improv- panies like Amazon have
lowest level since the FDIC ing. Roughly 11.3% of Black been tracking consumer
started tracking the data in households are without a data via credit card usage
2009 and down from 5.4% bank account, down from for a while now, but banks
of Americans in the 2019 13.8% two years earlier. are taking advantage of
survey data. Among Hispanic house- this data too.
The decline in unbanked holds, that figure declined Americans outside the tra-
households may partially to 9.3% from 12.2%. ditional financial system
be attributed to the coro- The primary reasons for why face numerous obstacles
navirus pandemic. States someone would choose to with their daily finances,
and the federal govern- be unbanked were largely which is why policymak-
ment distributed trillions of unchanged from previous ers push so hard to get
dollars in stimulus to Ameri- surveys. One in five un- unbanked households to
cans after COVID-19 shut banked households said open a savings or check-
down the U.S. economy not having enough money ing account. Cash check-
in March 2020. The benefit to maintain an account ing services, utility payment
programs largely needed was the main reason they services, rent payments
a bank account to send went without one a sign without a bank account
the funds quickly to those that being unbanked re- often come with fees,
impacted. mains an economic inclu- money that a person with
“During the pandemic, sion issue. a bank account would not
consumers opened bank The FDIC started track- be subject to.
accounts to access relief ing unbanked Americans New immigrants and refu-
funds and other benefits in 2009. In the 2011 data, gees are also among the
quickly and securely,” said the number of Americans unbanked. Jhuma Acha-
FDIC Acting Chairman who were unbanked rose rya, a former refugee from
Martin J. Gruenberg, in a significantly as a result of Bhutan and a case man-
statement. the Great Recession. While ager with Community Ref-
But the FDIC attributed Americans kept their bank ugee and Immigration Ser-
most of the improvement accounts through the coro- vices in Columbus, said he
to the stronger economy navirus recession, there is a sees an increase in clients
in 2021, as the coronavi- chance the number of un- calling him about business-
rus pandemic restrictions banked Americans could es that won’t accept their
largely expired and there rise in the future if inflation cash.
were low levels of unem- continues to damage the “I have never worked with
ployment. economy and unemploy- any single (new) refugee
Black and Hispanic house- ment increases. who said they have used
holds still remain much Other households had pri- a credit card in their life,”
more likely to not have a vacy and trust issues re- Acharya said.
Acharya said clients usu-
ally take a minimum of five
months to build enough
credit with banks in the
United States to sign up for
an account. In the interim,
Acharya said they try to
educate clients on how to
build up to a debit card
and use their Electronic
Benefits Transfer card. q