The updated Bank On National Account Standards identify critical product features for bank or credit union accounts appropriate to those currently outside of the mainstream banking system. Core account features include low costs, no overdraft fees, robust transaction capabilities such as a debit or prepaid card, and online bill pay. Notable changes in the 2019-2020 Standards include allowing paper statement fees that cannot exceed $2 per month, reflecting both costs experienced by financial institution partners and the strong online functionality of certified accounts.
Category: Report
The Present and Future of Bank On Account Data: Pilot Results and Prospective Data Collection
This report, The Present and Future of Bank On Account Data: Pilot Results and Prospective Data Collection, details the Bank On Data Pilot, which collected and measured quantitative data on 2017 Bank On account usage at four pilot financial institutions with certified accounts: Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo. The CFE Fund partnered with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRBSTL) for this pilot, which reveals the kinds of relevant account data that can be collected, how it might be collected, and what it might show; as well, this pilot highlights the benefits of a central reporting system for financial institutions with Bank On certified accounts and for their coalition partners across the country.
The anonymized dataset at the zip code level is available for download here. Want to play with the data yourself? A newly published Bank On Coalition Playbook Chapter,2017 Bank On Data Pilot: Accessing the Data, details how Bank On coalitions can use the Local Bank On Data Tool to produce reports of this data locally to support their work to expand banking access and the availability of Bank On accounts locally.
The CFE Fund and Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis hosted a webinar on this report and the Data pilot. Click here to watch the webinar.
CFE Coalition City Expert Topics: Reentry Integration Strategies
Nearly 10 million people exit local, state, and federal prison each year after completing their incarceration. Given the high rates of recidivism, the cost of incarceration, and the impact of incarceration on families, many city partners have begun testing financial empowerment strategies to help improve safe and successful reentry. This brief details the various strategies our city partners have taken to integrate financial empowerment into core social services, to support the formerly incarcerated reentering the community, and to achieve the “Supervitamin Effect” to boost programmatic outcomes.
CFE Coalition City Expert Topics: Youth Savings Initiatives
Across the country, a number of local governments are increasing the availability of youth savings opportunities for families, with the goal of improving the likelihood that students of limited means enroll and persist in higher education. This brief details why city leaders are investing in youth savings initiatives, provides details on how these programs operate, and highlights how cities have gotten started doing this critical work.
CFE Coalition City Expert Topics: Launching an Office of Financial Empowerment
Across the country, many local leaders have launched Offices of Financial Empowerment (OFEs) or similar municipal offices that serve as a home for financial empowerment programming efforts. This brief details why municipal leaders have invested in this critical work, outlines the work of OFEs, and highlights how a number of cities launched their OFEs.
Programmatic Banking Access Integration Best Practices
Chapter 10 of the Bank On Coalition Playbook, Programmatic Banking Access Integration Best Practices, outlines the role that Bank On coalitions play in helping develop banking access program integrations.
The CFE Fund’s Bank On Coalition Playbook provides tools and resources that local coalitions can use to do their work more effectively. To learn more, read the full Bank On Coalition Playbook here.
Benefits of Bank On National Account Standard Certification: Handout
Chapter 9 of the Bank On Coalition Playbook, Financial Institution Benefits of Bank On National Account Certification, is a handout to be shared with financial institution partners that highlights the key benefits of offering an account certified as meeting Bank On National Account Standards.
Read the full Bank On Coalition Playbook here, and download the print version of this handout here.
Launching or Relaunching a Bank On Coalition
Chapter 8 of the Bank On Coalition Playbook, Launching or Relaunching a Coalition, provides guidance and a checklist of critical components for new or newly invigorated coalitions as they look to launch or relaunch their Bank On efforts.
This chapter looks at key moments Bank On coalitions experience during a launch or relaunch and includes detailed guidance for each step –laying the groundwork and planning for coalition success, developing communications and marketing efforts, building relationships with financial institutions, and sustaining momentum after the launch. View the full Playbook here.
A Much Closer Look: Enhancing Savings Counseling at Financial Empowerment Centers
This report, with generous support from Capital One, draws on data results from a two-city pilot to better understand how Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) clients are saving and ultimately inform new savings indicators for financial counseling success.
In 2017, financial counselors at Financial Empowerment Centers (FECs) in Nashville and Philadelphia tested an innovative approach to defining, discussing, and tracking their clients’ efforts to build savings, using new savings outcomes. The CFE Fund combined counselor and client experiences with academic and policy research to operationalize the field’s thinking about how people with low incomes save, to tell a more complete story about the impact of financial counseling on savings, and to learn whether changing a program’s data system affects the way financial counselors work and the results their clients achieve.
The CFE Fund hosted a webinar on this report. Watch the webinar here. View the presentation here.
Bank On Coalition Logic Model
Chapter 7 of the Bank On Coalition Playbook is the Bank On Coalition Logic Model, which provides a framework for Bank On coalition leaders to follow and organize their efforts for local success, providing a tool for planning and implementation as well as for fundraising and evaluation. The CFE Fund’s Bank On Coalition Playbook provides tools and resources that local coalitions can use to do their work more effectively.