Increasingly, the financial services industry is considering the potential of underbanked consumers, as demonstrated by the sold out crowd of over 400 attendees at the Underbanked Financial Services Forum, held in June 2006 and produced by CFSI and SourceMedia. The diverse audience, with representation from banks, credit unions, check cashers, vendors and nonprofits, came together to discuss opportunities, trade notes and find partners for reaching out to underbanked markets. The resonating themes from the Forum are detailed in this paper. In addition, the paper examines how a post-conference survey of participants yielded new insights into the perceived opportunities and challenges in serving the market.
The Forum yielded important themes, which are detailed in this paper. In addition, a post-conference survey of participants yielded new insights into the perceived opportunities and challenges in serving the market. 26.4% of conference attendees responded, representing a cross-section of the attendees. Taken together, the learnings and survey findings should help shape the work and discussions going forward regarding the opportunity to serve the underbanked.