CPS Supplement: Unbanked/Underbanked

Data are collected to fulfill a congressional mandate contained in section 7 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Conforming Amendments Act of 2005 (“the Act”), Pub. L. 109-173, which requires the FDIC to conduct biennial surveys on “efforts by insured financial institutions to bring those 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 (the “unbanked”) into the conventional finance system.” The mandate further requires the FDIC to consider various factors and questions including the size and worth of the unbanked market in the United States and the cultural, language, and identification issues and transaction costs that prevent unbanked individuals from establishing conventional accounts.