Making Financial Services Work for Everyone

Although the United States has one of the most sophisticated financial services industries, as many as 22 million American households - one family in five - have no bank account.

This paper summarizes the key themes of the discussions at the gathering hosted by Ford Foundation in June 2005. The participating members included:

• Policy advocates and issue experts;
• Foundation program officers;
• Private sector initiatives form Citi bank, Key bank, tax-preparation and financial services company;
• Think tanks and advocacy organizations;
• Senior Managing Director/National Practice at Shore Bank Advisory Services, who moderated the meeting.

The group had a consensus on the need to:

• Have an appropriate product mix and marketing strategy;
• Leverage existing community based delivery channels;
• Shift corporate culture, strategy and operations in order to realize the potential of low-income markets;
• Introduce push-pull strategy that will move individual companies and reshape the overall market context;
• Facilitate the progress of commercial organizations through thought leadership, research and development, building pathways to scale, and changing the policy environment by non-profits.