WASHINGTON–The percentage of U.S. households who do not have a bank or credit union account declined 0.9 percentage points to 4.5%, or approximately 5.9 million from 2019 to 2021, according to the biennial National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households by the FDIC.
That is lowest percentage of Americans to be unbanked since the 2009 launch of survey, according to the agency.
The FDIC reported the 2019-2021 drop in the national unbanked household rate corresponded to an increase of approximately 1.2 million banked households, raising the rate of banked households to nearly 96% in 2021. In its analysis, the federal bank regulator said that from 2011 – when the unbanked rate was at its highest level since the survey began – and 2021, the unbanked rate fell 3.7 percentage points, corresponding to an increase of approximately five-million banked households, it said.
The FDIC survey defines “unbanked” as meaning no one in the household had a checking or savings account at a bank or credit union.
The Findings
Among the other findings in the survey:
- 14.1% of households, or 18.7 million, were underbanked in 2021, which the FDIC says means they had a bank or credit union account and used nonbank financial products – money orders, check cashing, or international remittances (i.e., nonbank transactions), and nonbank financial services – rent-to-own services or payday, pawn shop, tax refund anticipation, or auto title loans (i.e., nonbank credit).
- Use of mobile banking was, not surprisingly, up significantly, from 15.1% in 2017 to 34.0% in 2019, to 43.5% in 2021, and was the most prevalent primary method of account access.
- Correspondingly, the use of a bank/CU teller declined sharply from 24.8% in 2017 to 21% in 2019 to 14.9% in 2021. But the use of tellers remained prevalent among certain segments of the population, including lower-income households, less-educated households, older households, and households that did not live in a metropolitan area.
Additional Data Points
Among underbanked households, the FDIC said its survey found:
- Use of mobile banking was higher among underbanked households (48.8%) than among fully banked households (42.5%).
- The use of online banking as the primary method of account access was considerably lower among underbanked households (11.6%) than among fully banked households (23.8%).
- Similar proportions of underbanked households (15%) and fully banked households (14.9%) used a bank teller as the primary method of account access.
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