The Financial Health Network submitted this letter in response to the request for comment on the proposed Amendments to Rules Concerning Prepaid Accounts, issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB, the Bureau) and published on June 29, 2017. Like the CFPB, we recognize the important role that prepaid products and services can play in the financial health of U.S. consumers and we are committed to promoting high-quality financial products. We believe that financial services can be a force for good in people’s lives and that meeting consumers’ needs responsibly is ultimately good for both the consumer and the provider.

Learn how Handle Financial is assessing factors related to bill payment and using this data as a guide for product development.

Understanding the three prominent financial health challenges that community college students face and how those students can improve their financial health through choosing and using quality products and services.

Financial technology (“fintech”) has tremendous potential – as a delivery channel for high-quality products and services – to help consumers improve their financial health.

The Financial Health Network and Core Innovation Capital present this 6th annual market analysis to illustrate the size of the opportunity to address the needs of financially underserved consumers and identify significant trends driving marketplace evolution and growth.

The Financial Health Network is submitting this letter in response to the request for comments on the “Proposed Guidance for Third-Party Lending” issued by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and published on July 29, 2016.

The Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) offers consulting services that guide organizations through each stage of offering new solutions, from development to ongoing measurement.

Over the last year, more than 100 million American households experienced a financial shock. This year the Financial Solutions Lab’s second $3 million challenge was seeking solutions that could help Americans to weather such shocks.

The Financial Health Network has developed eight indicators to measure financial health. We believe that these indicators establish a framework for shifting the financial services industry towards a focus on financial health, a focus on improving consumers’ lives.

The 2016 Challenge topic of the Financial Solutions Lab is Helping Americans Weather Financial Shocks. This issue brief introduces the topic, the reasons it is an important problem to solve, and some innovative approaches to doing so.

Despite strong member satisfaction and negative consumer sentiment towards banks, credit unions’ market share of key profit drivers like mortgages and credit cards is in the single digits.

In 2010, Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) launched its Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Credit Builder program with the primary goal to establish or improve credit for low-income Latino immigrants and help them responsibly manage credit over the long term.

Center for Community Self-Help’s (Self-Help) “Just Right” line of small-dollar credit (SDC) products was designed to test features of SDC products offered to clients as affordable and safe credit options.

Piggymojo built an online and mobile tool that uses goal visualization, social sharing and mobile technology to help savers turn impulse buys into “impulse saves.”

The Survey Instrument is the full questionnaire that was fielded for the Consumer Financial Health Study, Understanding and Improving Consumer Financial Health in America.

The Financial Health Network’s letter to the CFPB focuses on four main areas, each framed around what is best to achieve the overall goal of consumer financial protections that support financial health:

Read case studies and discover recommendations for using prepaid cards to promote financial health by helping consumers spend, save, and manage their money.

This report examines the significant volume of recent investment activity in the FinTech market for financially underserved consumers. This consumer finance segment is a dynamic and growing space.

Centris Federal Credit Union believes serving underserved consumers doesn’t just make good business sense, but is integral to its heritage and mission.

Nexxo Financial Corporation joined forces with Centris Federal Credit Union and Carver Federal Savings Bank to supply transaction kiosks to provide consumers more convenient access to the financial services they need.

This case study explores Justine PETERSEN. As a leader in microenterprise development and credit building, Justine PETERSEN emphasizes credit building as an empowering asset.

Increasingly, underserved Americans are turning to prepaid cards to meet their basic financial services needs.

Discover the Compass Principles through this informative infographic.

Although underbanked consumers in the U.S. often have insufficient access to financial services, their access to mobile phones is fairly widespread.

The need for new ideas to improve Americans’ financial capability has been evident throughout the recent recession.

Young adults entering the work force and managing wages for the first time today face a financial services marketplace that is markedly more complex than the one their parents first encountered as young adults.

Mainstream financial institutions have struggled to meet the needs of low-income families living paycheck to paycheck.

This the Financial Health Network inBrief provides some insights on underbanked consumers’ preferences and usage regarding financial service providers. The information is drawn from the 2008 the Financial Health Network Underbanked Consumer Stud.

Gain insights from this third annual event, including the importance of building relationships, understanding the underbanked market, and increasing our conversations around saving.

Discover how three nonprofit organizations are marketing and distributing prepaid debit cards to provide their community members with economical and convenient financial services.

At this second annual event, attendees learned how to reach out to unbanked and underbanked consumers using various methods, including prepaid cards, remittances, credit scoring, and small-dollar loans.

This research paper explores the mismatch between the consumer needs of low-wage immigrant unbanked and underbanked populations and existing financial products and vendor strategies.

In this report, learn insights into the current credit reporting system, why it doesn’t work for everyone, and efforts underway to improve it with the addition of new data sources.

Discover the potential of HR outsourcers, payroll companies, worksite marketing firms, and other intermediaries to provide distribution and marketing opportunities for financial services.

The unbanked and underbanked still face many barriers to asset building, but recent innovations show that it is possible to overcome these challenges through creative strategies.