Bank Products

CFPB: Steps Taken To Improve Checking Account Access

CFPB Concerned that Screening Inaccuracies and Lack of Account Options are Keeping Consumers Out of the Banking System WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is taking steps to improve checking account access amidst Bureau concerns that consumers are being sidelined by the lack of account options and by inaccurate information used to…

ABA: Survey Finds That Most Americans Pay Nothing For Bank Services

ABA highlights 8 tips to save on bank costs ​WASHINGTON — The majority of Americans—61 percent—pay nothing at all for bank services such as checking account maintenance and ATM access, according to a recent survey by the American Bankers Association. Most bank customers (72 percent) spend $3 or less in monthly fees—less than the cost…

Federal Reserve: Survey Provides Information on Mobile Financial Services

The use of mobile phones to access bank accounts, credit cards, or other financial accounts continued to increase among adults in the United States last year, according to a Federal Reserve Board report, Consumers and Mobile Financial Services 2015 (PDF). The report is the Board’s fourth looking at how consumers access banking services using mobile phones (“mobile…

ABA: CFPB Prepaid Rules Could Harm Underbanked Customers

In a news release, the American Bankers Association commented on the CFPB’s proposed rulemaking regarding prepaid cards: “The CFPB’s proposed rules for prepaid products include some onerous provisions that could create insurmountable compliance barriers for banks offering the cards, ABA said in a comment letter. This would be particularly harmful for “underbanked” individuals, many of…

FDIC: Branch Banking Remains Prevalent Despite the Growth of Online and Mobile Banking

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) today released a study showing that despite the increased use of online and mobile banking, brick-and-mortar banking offices continue to be the primary means through which FDIC-insured institutions deliver financial services to their customers. FDIC-insured institutions operated 94,725 banking offices as of June 2014, a decline of just 4.8…