Discover the Compass Guide to Prepaid, with insights into the increased use of prepaid cards and the growing need for guidance around developing high-quality prepaid products. 

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

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

The Financial Health Network is submitting this letter in response to the request for comment by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on May 24, 2012.

The products and services that cater to the needs of financially underserved consumers are big business.

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

Underbanked consumers need minute-to-minute information about their finances, and mobile financial services (MFS) are well suited to deliver it.

Millions of underbanked Americans have found prepaid cards an effective way to meet their basic financial services needs.

The financial crisis and economic downturn have reshaped the financial services landscape.

In 2010, the Financial Health Network launched its largest effort yet to catalog all existing financial products and services aimed at the underbanked population: the Underbanked Industry Scan.

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

Read findings from the Center for Financial Services Innovation's (CFSI) study into consumer needs, behaviors, and perceptions around secured credit card products.