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According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), approximately 5.6 million households are without a checking or savings account – otherwise known as “unbanked.” Unbanked households lack a secure and safe place to store their money and can miss out on interest gains and credit-building opportunities.

This Connecting Communities webinar featured leaders from organizations focused on advancing banking access for households through safe and affordable accounts via the Bank On program. Panelists also explored findings from the most recent Bank On National Data (BOND) Hub, hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

This interactive conversation highlighted

Whether you’re a financial institution, policymaker, nonprofit leader, researcher, or advocate, this session will provide practical insights to advancing financial access in your community.

Attendees had the opportunity to engage directly with the panelists during a live Q&A session, which provided deeper context and clarity to the findings.

Related resources:

Speakers:

• Jeff Langkamp, Senior Vice President, Bank Five Nine
• Lisa Locke, Community Development Advisor, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
• David Rothstein, Senior Principal, Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund
• Erin Waddell, Chair, Bank On Louisville
• Sergio Galeano, Community and Economic Development Advisor, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, moderator

Transcript

Sergio Galeano

To everyone across the country, good afternoon and welcome to Connecting Communities. Thanks for joining us for today’s webinar, titled Bank On and Reaching the Unbanked in Our Communities.

I’m Sergio Galeano, I’m a community and economic development advisor with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and it’s my pleasure to be a moderator for today’s session. Across the country, approximately 5.6 million households do not have access to a checking or savings account. A situation commonly referred to as being unbanked. Many more than that are actually underbanked. They often rely on alternative financial services that can be costly and limit their ability to fully participate in the financial system.

For these households, the absence of a safe and affordable banking relationship isn’t just a minor inconvenience. It can mean to real missed opportunities to build savings, access and increase their credit scores, and achieve greater financial stability. At the macro level, it means a less likelihood of achieving economic mobility and being part of the broader economy.

And that’s why for today’s webinar, we’ve convened leaders from a host of organizations to bring their expertise and share with us their participation and role in the Bank On Program. The Bank On Program is an initiative designed to advance banking access to those unbanked and underbanked households, to help them more participate in the financial system.

It’s my pleasure on the next slide to introduce today’s speakers. We have with us Jeff Langkamp. Jeff is Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer at Bank Five Nine, a community bank headquartered in Wisconsin. He oversees the bank’s fraud, security, and community reinvestment, or CRA for short, initiatives.

In 2025, Jeff was named outstanding community partner by the Urban Economic Development Association and recognized as a top compliance executive by the Milwaukee Business Journal. Next up, my colleague from the St. Louis Fed, we have Lisa Locke. Lisa Locke is a community development advisor based in the Louisville branch of the St. Louis Fed.

She serves as the lead relationship manager for the Bank On National Data Hub, providing support to new and existing financial institutions that participate in data reporting on this program and many more.

Her work includes conducting outreach, analyzing policy, convening events, providing technical assistance, and highlighting effective programs and tools. Third, we have David Rothstein. David is senior principal at the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, where he leads the national Bank On initiative.

Previously, he served as director of resource development and public affairs for Neighborhood Housing Services of greater Cleveland, providing fund development and policy leadership. He also served as a research fellow for the New America Foundation and its asset building and the program director for the Ohio Cash Coalition with Policy Matters Ohio.

Today, joining us also is Erin Waddell, Chair of the Bank On Louisville Advisory Committee and a social service policy and advocacy manager with the Office of Financial Empowerment under the Office of Social Services.

In Erin’s current role, she creates and manages innovative programming that helps low- and moderate-income people achieve financial wellbeing and empowerment. Currently, she also serves as board chair for the Louisville Asset Building Coalition. Now, everyone, thanks again for being here. Before we continue on to the actual presentations, a few housekeeping items.

First, I want to express that views expressed during today’s session are those of the speakers only and are only intended for informational purposes. They do not necessarily represent the views of Fed Communities or the Federal Reserve System. Microphones, as you’ve noticed, have been muted, but please, there’s still ways to engage with us. Please use the Q&A feature throughout the session.

And in fact, you can ask your first question now and we’ll hold onto it and do our best to answer all of them during the panel and Q&A. Now, you can also engage with us online, wherever you go online, LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook by using #connectingcommunities, and you can visit fedcommunities.org for a variety of articles just like today’s event and many others in the past.

Once again, that’s #connectingcommunities. And finally, this session as of a few minutes ago through the end will be recorded and the final presentation, video, and podcast will be available on fedcommunities.org within about two weeks of the end of today’s event.

Now, as I invite David to join us on camera to prepare for his presentation, I want to thank again our four experts for joining us and I’d like to also ask the first of three polling questions we’d like to ask you in the audience as we kick on. The first should have just prompted right now and the question is, how familiar are you with the Bank On or similar financial inclusion programs? With that, I turn it over to David. Thank you.

David Rothstein

Well, thank you very much, Sergio, and thank you for the Federal Reserve Bank system for hosting this webinar on Bank On. I’m excited to jump in and tell you about the national program.

You can jump right in. So I’m going to talk a little bit today about the different functions of what the National Bank On program works, how it works with financial institutions, how it works with local and state coalitions around the country, and then how those financial institutions can link with municipal and nonprofit partners. You can go to the next slide.

So the biggest goal for Bank On, as Sergio alluded to, is around ensuring that everyone has access to a safe and affordable bank account or credit union account. And this started roughly 10 years ago when we took over a national platform for Bank On from what had been localities doing their own financial access initiatives calling them Bank On.

We really put together the first national movement around Bank On. You can go to the next slide. So our approach, there are two main large functions of how we operate. The first is, back 10 years ago, we created the first ever set of Bank On national account standards. This helps provide local programs and financial institutions with a benchmark for what accounts look like to be deemed safe, affordable, and fully transactional accounts. Currently, we have over 500 certified accounts across the country and you’re going to hear from Jeff, from Bank Five Nine in a minute of one of those financial institutions that’s offering one of these Bank On accounts.

Additionally, we have over a hundred Bank On coalitions around the country that are working in their communities to be the beacon for financial access in connecting consumers to these Bank On-certified accounts.

You’re going to hear from Erin from Louisville in a minute about how they’ve been doing that for some years as well. You can go to the next slide.

So what are these Bank On National Account Standards? These are features that financial institutions have to design their accounts to meet in order to be deemed safe, meaning no overdraft or insufficient fund charges or other fees. Affordable, meaning that the accounts are $5 or less with a low minimum opening deposit of $25 or less, and fully functional.

So these accounts have to allow you to be part of an ATM network, pay bills, make deposits and withdrawals without penalties, access to branches, and all of those features. And what’s unique about the Bank On National Account Standards approach is that certainly a lot of accounts have some of these features, but the Bank On National Account Standards really puts them together so that financial institutions know that all of these different features have to be offered on one account.

In addition to those core features, we have a list of strongly recommended features, which are the best practices that financial institutions and coalitions are using to get people into these accounts and get them excited about them and continue to use these accounts. And that includes things like only denying people account opening for past instances of fraud, accepting alternative identification at time of opening, those kind of things.

You can go to the next slide. How has this been going? Well, it’s been going very well and we could not do it without all of the partners that are on this particular webinar, of course, meaning our coalitions and our financial institution partners, but also the role of regulators and nonprofit groups who have been really instrumental in working with us to get these accounts out there.

So for instance, in 2015, when we officially launched the Bank On National Account Standards, we were told by four financial institutions, the largest banks in the country, that they were launching with us accounts that met these standards.

Since 2016, we have now grown to more than 500 certified accounts and these accounts range. We have banks and credit unions that have one or two branches. We have the largest financial institutions in the country who offer these accounts as well. So they represent 66% of the national deposit market share, are the financial institutions that offer these accounts. Also, 60% or more of the nation’s bank branches offer at least one certified account, and so our reach has grown considerably.

So that means that 89% of US ZIP codes offer a Bank On certified account so they’re very widely available. You can go to the next slide.

This slide shows you the green being good. You can see the growth of the share of households that are within a mile of a bank branch that’s offering a Bank On certified account. We’re working on updating with some of the latest information, of course, but you can see just even sheer as the map stops in 2022, the large number of availability of these accounts throughout the country and how it’s grown so dramatically.

You can go to the next slide. I mentioned our coalitions, which are the heart of making these accounts really matter and making them real in communities. Coalitions are extremely active in promoting financial institutions who offer these accounts, showing them how to get them into the community and making those connections. They also are fantastic at working with financial institutions who don’t yet offer these accounts to encourage them to offer accounts, walk them through the certification process with us and talk about the benefits of certification.

And of course, and I know Lisa’s smiling, getting them to report their data to the Bank On National Data Hub hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Those white dots represent either a city, county, or state where a Bank On coalition lies. And of course, we are always excited when new coalitions launch or relaunch and we have resources to work with them.

The other piece of coalitions that is critical is around program integrations. And Jeff’s going to talk a little bit about one of the program integrations that their financial institution works on. But what we mean by that is making sure that once these accounts are open and available, that they’re connected to places where people are receiving payments, refunds, stimulus, other programs where payments are being made.

And those are often at the state or local level, including things like unemployment insurance, apprenticeship funding, again, tax refunds.

There’s a whole list of places where people can see benefit in having a Bank On certified account and having a seamless connection. That’s where our Bank On coalitions have been so instrumental over the years. You can go to the next slide.

So again, I wanted to thank you for letting me give the lay of the land, the 10,000 foot overview of the National Bank On program. I really look forward to the question and answer period where we can talk about strategies, tactics, and tips around offering these accounts and any help that of course we can provide. Our team is more than happy to do that. Thank you very much, Sergio, for working with me on this.

Additionally, we have a poll question before I hand it off to Erin, that we’re going to ask here. And this, we really want to get a sense. As I mentioned, Bank On as a national program only works when all these different groups are involved to make it work. So we wanted to get a better sense of who’s representative on this webinar so we have a better sense of how we can have resources that can help.

So please fill out poll two. And with that, I’m going to hand it over to Erin.

Erin Waddell

Thank you, David. And I’ll give you guys just a second to fill out that poll. And if we could go ahead and move to the next slide. It’s great to be with you all. Thank you to our partners at the Federal Reserve for this wonderful invitation here. I’m Erin Waddell. I am a policy and advocacy manager for Louisville Metro Government’s Office of Financial Empowerment and there I have the wonderful pleasure of leading and chairing our Bank On Louisville effort.

So for a decade and a half, our coalition has been doing very coordinated community-wide work to expand access to safe and affordable banking through our Bank On Louisville Coalition. And so I’m happy to share a little bit with you today about our structure, some of our high-level impacts, and to highlight a few projects that really demonstrate how we bring Bank On to life in our city.

So if we can go to the next slide, please.

So as Bank On coalitions can serve as a bridge between bank accounts and the people who need them, I think it’s really helpful to first understand how a coalition is structured because that structure really facilitates the effectiveness of the broader coalition.

So for us, Bank On Louisville, like most other coalitions, is anchored in a three-sector partnership across local government, financial institutions, and community organizations. So I can’t see results of the poll, but I think most of you will find that you can see yourself represented in that three sector partnership there.

So for us here, our city’s Office of Financial Empowerment, we provide the day-to-day leadership and the overall strategic direction for Bank On, our financial institutions, both certified partners and those who are still working towards certification, obviously supply the financial products and services and community organizations. They bring connections to the residents who most need access to the financial mainstream.

In addition, we are strongly supported by an external advisory committee representing all three of those sectors. And this framework really helps keep our leadership, our banking partners and our community service providers aligned and coordinated in advancing this work. So we’ll move on to the next slide.

We proudly, very proudly celebrated 15 years of Bank On Louisville last year and this is a quick snapshot of some of the challenges we’ve tackled over the years as well as some of the high-level impacts. You just heard David talk about the Bank On National Account Standards and so we’ve obviously encouraged the adoption of those standards across our financial institution partners, and we now actually have 13 certified accounts in Louisville.

We’ve helped connect folks to more than 175,000 Bank On accounts over the years. We’ve trained over 1,000 social service providers in financial empowerment topics, which include banking and Bank Ons, that there’s a whole system promoting access to the financial mainstream.

And we’ve seen decreases in both the unbanked and under-banked rates for the city, which does suggest that we are doing an effective job at moving folks away from alternative financial services.

And then lastly, we’ve used the success and the impact of Bank On to expand and diversify our local financial empowerment work, adding new strategies and new focus areas. So I’ll tell you about those here on the next slide. I mentioned we launched Bank On in 2010, and that really sparked a much larger commitment to this type of work. So in 2014, we launched the Community Financial Empowerment Certification Program, which embedded financial empowerment training across the city’s social service system.

Then in 2018, we established a dedicated Office of Financial Empowerment within the city. In 2022, we established the Louisville Financial Empowerment Center or FEC, making free professional financial counseling, a city provided public service that helps residents reduce their debt, improve their credit, and connects them to safe affordable Bank On accounts.

And now today, financial empowerment really is woven into Louisville’s much broader strategies for reducing poverty, improving public safety, strengthening health and wellness, and advancing inclusive economic development. And it really did all start with Bank On.

Next slide, please. Perfect. So reaching unbanked and underbanked residents and increasing their access requires a variety of strategies, if you will. So I wanted to show a few examples of how this shows up in real life. So first, we actively promote Bank On certified accounts across the city. The outreach piece that you see there on the left is used at community events. It’s in the lobbies of our partner organizations. It’s sitting on the desks of case managers to keep safe banking options front and center.

We also elevate Bank On and our certified partners through public channels, press releases, announcements, spotlights. We celebrate each new certification and try to keep attention on safe and affordable banking access. We integrate banking access into our free tax program. So residents receive postcards, they see social media reminders and they get guidance at tax sites to help them open Bank On accounts during tax time.

And we partner with private sector businesses like Kroger to connect financial access with other essential needs like food security, really meeting residents where they already are. So engaging residents in a variety of ways, places, and through various sector partners really is key to getting more folks connected to the mainstream. So I’ve talked a lot about Louisville and now we’d like to hear from you. So I’d like to ask our producers to launch the next polling question.

As I just shared about the various ways that we try to connect with folks about bank accounts to break down barriers to access, we’re interested in learning what do you think are the biggest barriers to account ownership? So while you’re thinking and responding to that poll, I’d like to thank you for your time, thank my friends at the Federal Reserve. And with that, I will turn it over to Jeff with Bank Five Nine.

Jeff Langkamp

Thank you very much, Erin. Happy to be here to talk a little bit about what Bank Five Nine is doing in our partnerships with Bank On. I believe Bank On of Greater Milwaukee has been a great resource for us to expand our programs across the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County. So we’ll go to my first slide.

So a little bit about me and my bank, Bank Five Nine, as Sergio said, we’re in Wisconsin and we’re from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. So I know you all wanted to hear me pronounce that word. It’s about 30 minutes southwest of downtown Milwaukee. So we were founded in 1859. We’ve been around for, geez, 167 years, so a long history of doing what we do. So on the next slide, I’m going to talk a little bit about our mission statement. So our mission statement really easy, it’s Make Lives Better. And when I do this in person, I usually have people raise their hand and say, “Okay, who can tell me their mission statement?” And it’s probably about a 30% clip that people can get it right.

So I’m happy that my bank has a very easy mission statement, Make Lives Better. The relationship with Bank On really fits in with our mission statement of making lives better. So we have two products that we offer and then one project that I’ll talk about. So on the next slide, we’ll talk about our Bank On certified account.

So this is Constance Alberts and she loves it when I use her picture and give attention to her. She’s the director of Bank On Greater Milwaukee and I think a real driving force behind why Bank Five Nine is doing what they’re doing. I met Constance in, I think it was 2018 or 2019 at a FDIC Alliance for Economic Inclusion meeting and she started talking about a Bank On account right away. I was like, “Okay, let’s do that. Let’s make this happen.” Really with David’s group, the process was so easy. I think within three months we had our account ready to go.

We were one of the first to do it in Bank On Greater Milwaukee Coalition, I think we’re up to 18 certified accounts in the coalition now. And I really believe it’s the relationships that you can make to identify where can my bank help 50 plus organizations in the coalition at this point in time.

So on the next slide, I’ll talk about another product that was a result of our relationship. Again, Constance introduced me to Riverworks Corporation, in which they have a financial coaching arm and we had talked about credit building, the need to have reestablished credit or get credit. And so we talked and we developed a pretty easy and I think safe, affordable, you build credit while saving. So the bank puts up $1,000 into a savings account that secures the loan, and over two years the customer can pay $41.67 a month and over two years they will have paid basically $1,000.

Well, at that point in time, once the maturity comes, we give them their $1,000 back. So they have $1,000 saved, zero risk, opportunity is ready to go. They’ve built some credit. I think really for me initially, our average age was about 25 when this first started and I was like, wow, that seems young.

But then I have two college-aged students who haven’t established credit. And so they got into the program and for two years made payments, saved $1,000 and were ready to go. Currently, we have 50 customers in the program. I think overall we’ve had 150 total that have gone through with the Credit Builder program.

So it’s been really good. And when I say zero risk, at any point in time, if a customer, say six months in was like, “You know what, I can’t make the payment right now. I lost my job or whatever.” At that point in time, we would stop the program. We’d give them what they’ve paid back in. So say six months, say $250, they’d get that 250 back and they would be on their way. And actually have had six months of credit history, but as we know, the longer that you can pay credit, the better off you are.

So that brought me to the next slide, which is kind of another project that we’ve had, is our returning citizens project. And again, I keep on banging the drum of a Bank On Greater Milwaukee, but being involved in this group led me to meeting with the Department of Corrections and then community organizations. And they had identified a need. One of the barriers to jump through for the returning citizens when they’re released is, “I’m back now. I need a bank account. What can I do? Where do I go?” All of that stuff. So we developed a financial literacy program that really goes to four weeks. We’re into our sixth cohort now. I come in for one week, I talk about banking, the pros of banking and being banked. And then at the end of my session, we actually open up accounts from inside the facility.

So we are in the computer lab, we are available. We have an online portal that the citizens can get on the computer, open up the account. And then upon release, they would have a debit card in their personal property so that they’re out and they’re ready to go. Maybe they’ve got a job, so now they’ve got an account number and all that stuff. I think really also the big hurdle to jump over there was the Department of Corrections ID. That’s not a normal form of identification. A lot of things that we heard, one of the issues, one of the barriers was that I might not have an ID. Well, what are some other things that we can do? So we worked with the Department of Corrections. I actually worked with the FDIC, our BSA examiner also and just said, “Hey, I’m thinking about accepting these things.

Does it make sense? Are you guys okay with it?” And like he said to me, he said, “The regulation states that you have to form a reasonable belief that you know who that person is.” And I believe that if we’re working with people that are at the community reintegration center, that we know who those people are. So it just didn’t make sense to me and we have accepted that as a form of ID.

So I think if we want to pull up the poll question, I can see… Okay, Actually, I would’ve thought ID requirements would’ve been a little bit higher there, but it’s good to see. I think Erin and I had talked yesterday during our pre-meeting a little bit that we could probably talk about barriers to account ownership for an hour and a half session. But yeah, all of these things are definite barriers to opening and I think the Bank On accounts address a lot of these situations.

So that is all I’ve got from me. I will hand it over to Lisa.

Lisa Locke

Great. Thanks, Jeff. Again, I am Lisa Locke, and I’m a community development advisor with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and I lead our Bank On National Data Hub initiative. So next slide please.

So as David mentioned a little earlier in his presentation, the CFE fund created the Bank On National Account Standards in 2015. It became more uniform on exactly what financial institutions needed to have in an account and what features they needed to certify a Bank On account.

And so definitely the next step was how can we centralize the data collection process? So in 2017, in partnership with the CFE Fund, we launched the Bank On National Data Hub or the BOND Hub as we typically refer to it. And the BOND Hub serves as a national reporting platform for all institutions offering Bank On certified accounts. Each November we release an annual report that highlights the key findings.

All of the data is publicly available on our website along with the interactive data tool and this data collection enable us to tell the story of the Bank On movement down to individual zip code levels, but we aggregate the data and we only report down to the zip code level as long as three or more financial institutions have reported in that particular zip code.

So next slide, please. So we’ve heard from the coalitions, we’ve heard from the CFE Fund and the national work that they’re doing and the financial institutions, and of course the financial institutions, they’re critical to the Bank On initiatives. They have the account and they have the data, but data accessibility benefits all stakeholders. So by reporting to the BOND hub, it really streamlines the data reporting process for financial institutions. They can report once to the BOND hub up and satisfy the data requests from many multiple partners that they may be working with.

If it’s a large institution, they’re located in several different cities or states, they may be active with various Bank On coalitions. So reporting to the hub once will satisfy this with all the coalitions and different partners that they may be active with. It also demonstrates measurable community impact and it’s also a benchmark. So for financial institutions, they can compare their account growth and engagements against national trends and it also strengthens stakeholders’ partnerships. So next slide please.

So we’re currently reporting collecting 2025 data. So, we have 2024 highlights, the institution’s report on a one-year lag. So last year we had 45 institutions report to the hub. 14.2 million Bank On accounts were open and active as of December of 2024. And of course we know that the number of Bank On accounts open is much higher than that, but we only have the data for the institutions that report to the hub. So the more data we collect, the better story we can tell. In 2024, of these 45 institutions, nearly five million accounts were open and the average balance on these accounts is just over $1,200.

Next slide, please. So how can we leverage and grow the BOND Hub? And I’m glad you all asked that. I’m sure everyone on this webinar can answer that question for me, especially the coalition leads. I would ask you to share the BOND Hub data and the information with your coalition members, share the key metrics from the BOND Hub and then identify which of your financial partners are currently reporting to the hub and which ones may need just an additional nudge because it really emphasized… And emphasize with them how the data submissions really strengthens Bank On initiatives and advanced financial inclusion in your community. So next slide.

So if you’re interested in reporting as a financial institution reporting your data to the Hub, as I mentioned, we are currently collecting 2025 data and that deadline to report is May 30th, but we can certainly have flexibility to accommodate any financial institutions that would like to report their data this reporting cycle. You could just contact me directly. This is being recorded. You have my contact information. We have video tutorials and I’m always available to have meetings with anyone that’s interested in more information about the BOND Hub. So I thank you and we’ll get more into some Q&A, but at this time I thank Sergio, I’ll just turn it back over to you.

Sergio Galeano

Lisa, thanks so much and thank you to all of you. At this point, I’d invite the four of you to please join me on camera and we’ll have a nice little panel session followed by Q&A.

So just confirming that we’ve got everyone and that we’ll get Lisa off presentation mode so we could see a nice screen for everyone. But everyone, thank you so much for that really detailed presentation. I personally appreciate it and I hope the audience did too, seeing different angles, how each of you plays a specific role in this. Also confirming with my team that the audience can see all four, not just Lisa and I have her locked on my frame here, but a couple of themes really stood out to me throughout your four comments, access, partnerships, how institutions are translating a macro level strategy to something that has to be delivered at the local level.

I think we got a sense at the impressive scale at this and that the theory of change to ideally get everyone banked is a long-term goal. It is achievable, but it takes a lot of work and coordination over years.

So let’s dive in, but before we jump into more specifics on the different metrics and things that you brought up, I actually wanted to ask the four of you to open up and maybe share one success story that has inspired you, and it could be a metric that just surprises you, whether it’s a gap or an opportunity or even a story of a household, an individual or a community where you saw success and that it’s inspired the ongoing work with the Bank On program. So I’d like to start with David and then we’ll keep it up in the order that you all presented.

David Rothstein

That’s a great question. I feel like there are a lot of different stories, whether it’s financial institutions creating really innovative accounts or coalitions that are doing some really cool work. But actually I’m going to go with something that we just identified last week, which is that there are out of the 500 plus certified accounts, more than 200 of those allow individuals to fully open their account online, which that sounds kind of run-of-the-mill, I think for a lot of us, but actually, especially for this type of account, the growth has been considerable.

In 2020, so just six years ago, there were maybe 16 accounts that we had certified that you could open online and now again, 200 of the 500 allow you to do that. I think that is where obviously I think financial access is going in the near and immediate future.

It allows consumers to fully participate but do so at their own pace and in the privacy of their home, and even through maybe a social service or caseworker and not be in a branch necessarily and ease into something like that. So that to me is kind of a really cool success story for the field.

Sergio Galeano

Thanks for that. David, I’m sorry, Jeff.

Jeff Langkamp

Yeah, I think our success story is through our financial education at the CRC is talking to people that have graduated from our program. I think the one that speaks out to me is that the girl that was in our group broke down crying that somebody actually took time to teach her about financial education and to get an account open so that when she is released, she’s ready to go and she can go to a job interview and have a bank account ready to go, certified, Bank On, safe, and really that.

So I think that’s just, like I said, seeing the impact that it’s made on people that have never had financial education or this account ready to go is what makes it great for us.

Sergio Galeano

Yeah. And to add to that, it’s really promising that across the country in colleges, but also high schools, financial education for years has been playing a bigger role and often a requirement in curriculum, if not senior graduation. So that’s really promising to see how these areas come together. Erin?

Erin Waddell

Yeah, I’ve got a similar kind of touchy-feely thing. What really stands out to me are the conversations that I have with folks at any of our outreach events, whether that’s at the grocery store or at the resource fair or the tax site. But when you talk with people very honestly and informally about their lives and how and why they manage their money in the ways that they do, that’s really insightful. And so when I have the chance to tell someone about the Bank On accounts, why they’re such great options and then where to find them, you almost see an immediate sense of relief and appreciation, and a sudden confidence that they have to make more of an informed choice.

And I tell people that these are accounts and banks that they can trust because the account has been tested, it’s vetted and it’s certified. And I think that gives people a confidence that they didn’t have before.

And let’s be honest, in a sea of options for financial services, giving folks a much smaller yet trusted list of options, I think is really appreciated. So those conversations, and there’s been many, just remind me time and time again that this work is wildly meaningful.

Sergio Galeano

That’s right. And Lisa?

Lisa Locke

Of course I’m going to touch on the data component of it, but since 2017, when we first launched the BOND Hub and we had four financial institutions reporting to the Hub, to last year when we had 45 institutions, we’ve just seen continuous growth on account openings, account usage, and online access.

That’s been a very active part of the accounts. And on that really stood out from 2023 to 2024 was peer-to-peer transactions. And when you talk about Venmo and PayPal and Cash Apps, those are all included in those peer-to-peer transactions. And that metric actually doubled from ’23 to 2024 to just over 61 million transactions. So we’re seeing a lot of activity, but a lot of online activity and access that we’re seeing in those numbers that we’re collecting. We collect on 23 different metrics.

Sergio Galeano

Wow, that’s really memorable. Thanks, Lisa. Don’t forget everyone, #connectingcommunities. Well, we’re touching on a couple things today, overcoming barriers, digital features and the actual infrastructure of money, the nudges and right incentives to get the unbanked participating, reducing those barriers, the innovation involved to just keep adapting to modern times and always improving the user experience, and then scaling across coalitions, many of which have good intentions but may not have previously had the capacity or awareness of such programs and ways of bringing them into their local government or nonprofits.

Or I was really impressed, Erin, in how many hundred social providers need to be trained on this kind of data. But starting off on overcoming barriers, I think this is really interesting because I think a lot of folks ask, “Well, why are people unbanked in the first place?” So to just showcase that, I thought we would focus on one program that stood out to me in the presentation, and that was yours, Jeff.

You have a really good program at your Bank On, the Returning Citizens Project. And I think that showcases a key initiative that addresses the often many layered barriers faced by specific groups.

In this case, ID requirements and opportunity to come back financially, if you will, start from scratch, reenter a financial system that one was involuntarily resigned from for a certain time and then brought back, and they got to get their lives together and this bank actually changes lives. So whether it’s returning citizens or other groups, what do you think are the biggest challenges that you face in, one, expanding banking access to specific groups and tailoring to their needs and two, getting institutional buy-in to participate and also help?

Jeff Langkamp

Yeah, there’s a reason why I threw our mission statement into my presentation. I think if we’re living our mission statement of making lives better, you can’t say, “We’re going to make lives better,” and then not do it. And I believe that these products save… They’re making lives better for returning citizens or somebody who doesn’t have trust in the financial institution. I think for us, again, building that relationship and having that trust, like, “Hey, that’s Jeff. I know that he’s going to take care of me. He has got my interests in mind. We’ve got this account that works,” that works well. Again, the ID thing seemed so easy to me. It was just, we didn’t ask the question. And so when you ask the question and said, “Hey, would this work?” And you work with your regulators, now it’s like, okay, this can work and I’ve got buy-in.

And so there’s just, I think asking those questions and kind of challenging the status quo a little bit, as far as what’s acceptable as an ID or that is really what works. So really the barriers are going to be there, but I think you have to be side by side with the people and getting that trust and moving forward.

Sergio Galeano

I like what you’re saying on trust and being there to understand their specific needs and with the partners as well to know what their capacity is and entrust them. Also bring credibility to new people that folks in the community may not be aware of. Erin, you’ve got tons of experience with this with Bank On Louisville.

Your program itself has opened up in the city over the last 15 years, I believe 175,000 accounts, a lot for a city, and that has involved much more than just banking. It’s involved awareness campaigns, training social service providers, like we mentioned, financial education workshops to households, communities in different settings and a lot of coordination. From your vantage point in the city of Louisville, what are the most persistent barriers that you’re still encountering and increasing the number of accounts and the quality of them over time that people keep using them and how has that evolved?

Erin Waddell

Yeah, and the work never really stops. There’s always going to be new people who need support, getting and staying in the mainstream, but two things really continue to come up for us. So first, while we’ve obviously made real progress reducing the unbanked rate in Louisville, the challenges around the underbanked remain pretty complex.

So early on, our focus was ensuring that people with no connection to the mainstream had access and opportunity and that work is still really essential. But today we’re increasingly focused on understanding why people who already have a mainstream account still rely on alternative financial service. There’s no single reason, as Jeff mentioned earlier, there’s no single reason why people are underbanked. It’s a mix of factors and unique characteristics that shape people’s behaviors. So we’re constantly trying to understand what’s happening with people and what’s changing in real people’s lives so that we can respond effectively.

And then second, we’ve kind of hinted at this a couple times, but just the rapid evolution of technology continues to reshape things. So new products and new platforms and services are just constantly emerging, and people interact with those in ways that can be both really empowering but also potentially risky.

And so keeping up with that pace of change and technology advances and helping residents navigate through those safely is an ongoing challenge. But like everybody, we’re just trying to always work to understand what’s happening so that we can better inform and educate.

Sergio Galeano

Thank you for that. Yeah. Ongoing work. And you mentioned technology. It’s a great segue, a question I had for David. David, you started off talking about more of the banking side, the regulations, the standards and someone in the audience had asked about what really makes Bank On different from a regular account. And I think what it is, is the work, and you can speak to this, but the standards that came that when you see that certification, you know that with that comes a certain level of safety, access and trust, and that you quoted something between 75 or 85% of banks include at least one of these accounts and that’s a huge, huge endeavor and success.

So I’m curious, because when I think of my experience as someone not in this space, as a user of banking mobile apps, these apps are constantly shifting with updates and improving for my user experience to also meet my needs as a consumer with those of the banks, a combination of business and social mission.

But for the people that you’re serving through these accounts and keeping this system healthy, as standards might evolve, but also as technology evolves, how do you balance that line? Whether it means new digital features, new app developments, the integration of AI, privacy settings, how do you make sure that those standards reflect not just the safety of the program, but that they actually offer the best of what modern banking infrastructure can give consumers?

David Rothstein

That’s a great question. It’s the question of all questions, right? How do we keep the standards relevant but stay true to our north star of making these achievable? It doesn’t make sense to have standards that financial institutions can’t meet or are so restrictive that people can’t get into them.

So really what we try to do, it’s a process that goes back and forth. So every two years we do revisit the national account standards. We will be doing recertifications at the end of 2026 for 2027. And really, we depend on our coalitions and financial institutions to be our eyes and ears on the ground, to tell us what’s working and what’s not working.

We very much stay on top of the trends in terms of things like account use. We look at things like what are money orders, what’s the fee for money orders at the post office and in private practice. We do try to stay up-to-date and we do get a ton of feedback from the field. I think one of the things that we’ve always been very good about is staying true to what is working in the standards.

So for instance, the base structure of no overdraft fees, no NSF fees, a very low opening deposit, which we saw as one of the main reasons 40% or so of why people think people don’t have accounts. So we’ve really stayed true to the core pieces of why people don’t have bank accounts or have trouble staying in a bank account and that is really always what’s going to govern the standards.

A lot of the, what I like to call noise around things like AI and other pieces, we follow that. We think it’s important, but at the same time, we’re not letting it dictate to us changing the standards of a program that’s working really, really well, and again, staying true to that.

As I mentioned though, there are times where we do make changes and we’ve made very small ones over time, but just as one example, for instance, the cost of mailing paper statements has gone up dramatically for financial institutions.

So I believe six years ago we allowed a very small minimal charge outside of the existing structure. We allowed financial institutions to start charging a very small amount for paper statements, or even say… And a lot of financial institutions have opted to not offer paper statements at this point, but if somebody comes into a branch, of course they’ll print the statement for them. So we do try to adapt.

Sergio Galeano

Thanks, David. And a quick follow-up, let’s spend the last couple of minutes blending a couple of questions from the audience as well. Since we’re talking about standards, a few questions hint at structure. I think I know the answer, but I want to make sure everyone in the audience hears it. So someone was asking, does the FDIC ensure these Bank On accounts as regular accounts? I think yes, of course.

But also if I add to that, David, and for anyone, a couple of programs, BNPL, if that acronym rings a bell, or specifically the IRS’s VITA programs, people are asking about other similar financial inclusion programs, and I think they’re hinting at how do these play a picture in public policy and impact even at this program. I don’t think there’s competition, but it’s giving the best service possible.

So if I could ask, kind of bringing it all together, how do these financial inclusion programs work together to serve communities the best way?

Jeff Langkamp

I think I’ll jump in real quick. The accounts are definitely FDIC-insured. That’s a positive. The one thing we’re talking about, VITA, I believe we’re talking tax preparation. Again, that’s meeting people where they’re at. A lot of times you come in and you get a tax return and you have a refund that’s coming but you don’t have a bank account. That’s the perfect time to, again, meet them where they’re at, get that certified account set up and ready to go and they’re ready to go that way.

So that’s actually, I think with Bank On and VITA, it’s a perfect match.

Sergio Galeano

Thanks, Jeff. Lisa, you presented us with a really interesting and memorable metric earlier. I want to give you one that you also shared in the 2024 report on the National Bank On Data Hub that really stood out to me and I want to hear your perspective on it.

The latest 2025 paper that referenced the ’24 results from the National Data Hub indicate that the average monthly balance for users is $1,273. A lot of people have heard that many Americans may not have $400 for… So this stuff jumps way higher, three times higher than that very commonly cited metric that’s quite outdated by now. But in general, that’s a lot higher than I think a lot of people might expect for previously unbanked people.

What does this tell us about financial capability, that there are assumptions about unbanked doesn’t mean not having finances, it might just mean access to it, but to what extent do you think the data helps us reflect how banking access can increase financial responsibility planning and use once given the chance?

Lisa Locke

Yeah, and I think that was a concern with quite a few financial institutions when Bank On first launched many years ago, it was going to be money in, money out. What we know from the data is 40% of the accounts receive direct deposits and I think it was that fear that the money would go in on the 15th or the 1st or whatever and then within two days it would all be withdrawn.

But we’re seeing from the data that the accounts are very active. They are being open, they continue to grow the deposits and the debit transactions have been increasing year over year.

As I mentioned earlier, the peer-to-peer transactions doubled from ’23 to ’24. So I think what we’re finding is, if people have access and they can manage their money, it’s just being able to have that access and the availability to these particular financial services.

Of course, the banking, the checking account is just the first step into the financial mainstream, but people are actually… They’re opening the accounts, they’re keeping them active and they’re maintaining their balances.

Sergio Galeano

Thanks, Lisa. I want to give a chance to a specific longer question from someone in the audience, Sarah Gonzalez. She’s asking, she does a lot of work with the unhoused and youth. And similar to the question to you, Jeff, about specific groups that we can help out with tailored needs, question to any of you is, can you also discuss some of the strategies and challenges you all have seen with the younger adult population or populations experiencing homelessness?

Jeff Langkamp

Again, I’ll jump in again quickly just from the Milwaukee’s, our Bank On Greater Milwaukee Coalition actually has a youth aging out of foster care program where we again are meeting them where they’re at and opening up accounts for youth.

I know that we’re, at Bank Five Nine we’re not, but I know that there’s other financial institutions within the coalition that are doing that. So that’s another good thing that’s coming out of all of this talk with Bank On. It’s meeting people and being able to identify opportunities, and we’ve been doing that here in the Greater Milwaukee area.

Sergio Galeano

Thanks, Jeff. And thank you, David, for answering some of the questions I see here in the chat. There’s another one that I think we’ve hinted at, but I think that some folks are wondering, maybe those who are not specifically working for financial institutions, how we can share the good word. So some folks were asking about strategies or specific details and structure.

This person, I think we want another emphasis. Could I ask one more time if it wasn’t clear before, how specifically, what’s the strategy in getting in contact with the unbanked and underbanked? We’ve already answered parts of this, but how about the underbanked?

How do you identify people that have some access to financial services but might disproportionately rely on payday loans and a number of other institutions that have propped up in communities where there’s gaps to financial access and specifically credit or anything that’s honestly low fee and low overdraft and timely?

Erin Waddell

Yeah, I can jump in with that just because folks aren’t coming into you saying, “I’m underbanked, help me.” They’re not coming forward in that way. What for us, what we notice is that there’s an overlap. These are the folks coming in oftentimes for rent or utility assistance.

They’re coming into our tax sites. They’re making appointments with our financial counselors. So it’s those kinds of complimentary proxy services that we can use to then open the conversation about like, “Oh, how are you managing your money? And what other services are you relying on to get needs taken care of?” And so on and so forth. So for us, it’s kind of those complimentary programs and efforts that people are accessing. And again, meeting people where they are for us is what we find successful.

Sergio Galeano

Thank you. And with a few minutes remaining, I’d now like to close this panel and just take an opportunity to the four of you, thank you so much. One, even more than the time you shared today, just the work that you do in your everyday jobs to expand banking access. As members of the Federal Reserve, Lisa, I and Fed Communities care a lot about how communities can access and participate in today’s economy.

And this particular program is one that speaks about impact and scale, two metrics, two driving forces that really inspire a lot of the work we do here at the Federal Reserve and many across the audience, across the country. And thank you all for joining.

During the past hour, I learned a lot. Everyone, remember that the recordings will be shared and there’s a lot of data to learn about. But before we end the session, just a few requests.

There’s going to be a post-event survey that we’re going to send out. We’re always trying to improve these as we deliver these on a pretty steady cadence throughout the year. We’ll send it immediately after today’s events and that’ll help us improve, like I said.

Again, the materials from today will be available on fedcommunities.org and you can also access it on YouTube and you can share it and access it on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and Facebook. Make sure to subscribe so you can get access to material just like this.

And in the future, you can view previous Connecting Communities events from fedcommunities.org and please mark your calendars for next month’s event on June 4th, where we’re going to discuss Highlights From the 2025 Survey of Household of Economics and Decisionmaking, or SHED, for short. Everyone across the country, thanks for taking time out of your day and thanks to our speakers.

On behalf of the Federal Reserve System and Connecting Communities, thank you and we’ll see you next time. Take good care.