Report Showing Gains In Bank Access Overshadowed By COVID

The 5.4% figure does not tell the full story, mostly because racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately more likely to be unbanked. The FDIC study shows only 2.5% of white households are unbanked, while 13.8% of Black households and 12.2% of Hispanic households are considered unbanked. Roughly one out of four households making less than $15,000 a year do not have a bank account.

The FDIC was unable to give an estimate on how much the COVID pandemic has moved banked Americans into the unbanked, but it almost certain that figure is climbing currently. The Great Recession caused millions of Americans to lose their bank account, and the number of unbanked hit a record high of 8.2% in 2011 in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Further the pandemic has caused job losses mostly for workers who need to be physically present for their jobs restaurant workers, bartenders, theater workers, those working in retail, etc. Many of these jobs are lower paying and have fewer steady paychecks compared to the typically white-collar office worker now working remotely.