RECORD NUMBER OF AMERICANS HAVE BANK ACCOUNTS, GOV’T SAYS

The number of Americans who do not have a bank account fell to a record low last year, as the proliferation of online-only banks and an improving economy is bringing more Americans into the traditional financial system.

A new report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. found that 4.5% of Americans — representing approximately 5.9 million households — were without a bank account in 2021. That’s the lowest level since the FDIC started tracking the data in 2009 and down from 5.4% of Americans in the 2019 survey data.

The decline in unbanked households may partially be attributed to the coronavirus pandemic. States and the federal government distributed trillions of dollars in stimulus to Americans after COVID-19 shut down the U.S. economy in March 2020. The benefit programs largely needed a bank account to send the funds quickly to those impacted.

“During the pandemic, consumers opened bank accounts to access relief funds and other benefits quickly and securely,” said FDIC Acting Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg, in a statement.

But the FDIC attributed most of the improvement to the stronger economy in 2021, as the coronavirus pandemic restrictions largely expired and there were low levels of unemployment.

Black and Hispanic households still remain much more likely to not have a bank account, although those figures are improving. Roughly 11.3% of Black households are without a bank account, down from 13.8% two years earlier. Among Hispanic households, that figure declined to 9.3% from 12.2%.