Bank On Cities Campaign Advances Efforts to Connect Families with Mainstream Financial Services
by Sarah Bainton Kahn
 Since NLC’s Institute for Youth, Education, and Families (YEF Institute) launched the Bank On Cities Campaign earlier this year, more than a dozen cities have joined a growing national movement to connect families to the financial mainstream. These cities are helping the approximately 28 million “unbanked” and 44 million “underbanked” Americans, who lose $11 billion each year to check cashers, payday loan outlets and pawn shops, access free and low-cost bank accounts and loan products in their communities.
Representatives from 14 city teams gathered recently for a roundtable discussion in Crystal City, Va., sponsored by the YEF Institute to learn and share strategies for “banking the unbanked” and to discuss effective methods of ensuring that appropriate financial services and products are available to low-income families. The roundtable was held in conjunction with the CFED Assets Learning Conference and marked the first gathering of local officials participating in the Bank On Cities Campaign.
“I have to say kudos to the NLC for organizing this exchange of information,” said Bank on Houston Program Coordinator Janice Evans. “I left the conference with too many tips and contacts to count. It was truly an invaluable experience that will be of great benefit to Bank on Houston as we move forward to help the unbanked take that first step toward financial independence and asset building.”
Bank On Cities Campaign
The cities participating in the campaign — Boston, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Providence, R.I., San Antonio, San Francisco, Savannah, Ga., and Seattle — receive YEF Institute-sponsored technical assistance and opportunities for cross-city exchange. These networking opportunities help the cities develop and implement initiatives that connect residents to non-predatory financial institutions’ products and services. In addition to the campaign participants, several cities engaged in similar “Bank On” efforts or other financial stability initiatives attended the meeting: Brockton, Mass.; Philadelphia; Cleveland; Chicago; St. Louis; and Evansville, Ind.
The YEF Institute launched the Bank On Cities Campaign as the outgrowth of a two-year project to help cities develop comprehensive asset-building initiatives involving financial education, homeownership counseling, savings accumulation programs and asset protection. The new campaign is inspired by the innovative Bank on San Francisco initiative led by Treasurer José Cisneros and Mayor Gavin Newsom, in which the City and County of San Francisco partnered with financial institutions and community organizations to develop and promote free or low-cost financial products that cater to unbanked residents. Since it was launched in September 2006, Bank on San Francisco has helped local residents open more than 16,000 accounts.
City Replication and Innovation
Seeking to adapt the San Francisco model in their own communities, many other cities have now stepped in to act as a liaison between residents and financial institutions to prevent residents from losing millions of dollars to predatory lenders and other institutions providing fringe financial services.
During the roundtable discussion, Brockton Mayor James E. Harrington described his work with the HarborOne Multicultural Banking Center. HarborOne is a local credit union that developed the center last year to provide comprehensive services to immigrant populations within the city who have not had access to mainstream financial services.
“I worked with HarborOne Credit Union to develop the Multicultural Banking Centers when I learned that 800 properties in Brockton were going into foreclosure,” said Mayor Harrington. “Our center offers financial education, English as a Second Language classes, foreclosure counseling, homeownership classes and other services.”
In a series of roundtable panels and facilitated discussions, other city officials and national experts discussed several important topics: the impact of the nation’s current financial crisis on city efforts, emerging financial products and services, how to develop more sophisticated financial consumers through outreach and financial education, and the use of technology and local market research to enhance city efforts.
Panelists included Jennifer Tescher from the Center for Financial Services Innovation and Bill Myers from the Aspen Institute, who discussed innovative financial products that meet the needs of underserved financial consumers. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and other Treasury Department officials were also present to discuss two new pilot projects to reach out to the unbanked and underbanked.
Details: To learn more about the Bank On Cities Campaign, visit www.nlc.org/iyef or contact Heidi Goldberg at (202) 626-3069 or goldberg@nlc.org or Sarah Bainton Kahn at (202) 626-3044 or bainton@nlc.org.
Seattle Becomes Second City to Launch Bank On Initiative
The City of Seattle, one of the participants in the YEF Institute’s Bank On Cities Campaign, recently became the second city in the nation to launch a fully developed “Bank On” initiative. Bank on Seattle and King County is modeled on the Bank on San Francisco program developed by San Francisco Treasurer José Cisneros and Mayor Gavin Newsom. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and Councilmember Sally Clark are participating in an event held today at City Hall to celebrate the initiative’s launch.
Bank on Seattle and King County was developed through a partnership of the city, county, community organizations, 21 financial institutions and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, which has jurisdiction over the state of Washington.
The goal of the initiative is to connect 10,000 of the city’s 52,000 unbanked residents to mainstream checking and savings accounts by 2010. The city worked closely with the participating financial institutions and other partners to develop a financial product that would meet the needs of unbanked and underbanked financial consumers. City leaders are dedicated to helping residents keep more of their money by expanding alternatives to the high-cost fringe financial services industry.
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