U.S. Financial Diaries: Tim and Clara Adrian are in their early 30’s and live in Mississippi in a four-bedroom house that they own.

The emerging industry of technology startups providing financial services, known as FinTech, has typically targeted a relatively affluent customer base.

The National Community Tax Coalition is a national network dedicated to strengthening economies, building communities, and improving lives through tax assistance and asset building.

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

The Financial Health Network led a consumer research study on secured card products, conducted with MasterCard and Blue Flame Consulting.

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

This paper outlines some of the major themes which emerged during Fourth Annual Underbanked Financial Services Forum, in 2009, inlcuding an exploration of the heterogeneity of underbanked market segments

In the face of today’s economic crisis, Americans have started saving again. And while saving could be a short-lived response to the crisis, the current impetus to save has created an opportunity for financial services organizations to lead the way in encouraging saving, especially those institutions targeting financially underserved consumers.

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

This research paper describes some of the strategies that three major banks are using to supplement current disclosure practices, including working directly with the legal disclosures to improve readability and clarity.

This event underscored the business opportunities inherent in serving the underbanked market and identified opportunities to help move consumers along a pathway to savings.

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.