Our goal is to ensure that low-to-moderate income people have the opportunity, knowledge, and skills to access and successfully use financial products and services that can lead to asset building and long-term financial stability.
This is accomplished through the following ways:
- Product Design and Promotion: We work with financial institutions to design and promote safe, affordable, convenient and innovative financial products that meet the needs of individuals with low to moderate income.
- High-Quality Education: We empower consumers through financial coaching, education and skill development to increase their knowledge, access and successful use of financial products and services.
- Program Integration: Our program is designed and implemented with the consumer in mind by offering financial services that are coordinated, integrated and offered in a single, convenient location by trusted community partners.
Bank On is national, regional and local movement that is driven by over 100 Bank On Coalitions across the country that have connected tens of thousands of people to safe and affordable bank accounts and most recently, credit building opportunities.
Bank On programs ensure that low-to-moderate income people have the opportunity, knowledge, and skills to successfully access and use financial products that can lead to asset building and long-term financial stability.
The CFE Fund’s Bank On national initiative builds on this grassroots movement, supporting local coalitions with strategic and financial support, as well as by liaising nationally with banking, regulatory, and nonprofit organization partners to expand banking access, including through the first-ever Bank On National Account Standards, updated for 2023-2024. The CFE Fund offers an online Bank On account validation and certification process; banks and credit unions across the country, at no cost, now can submit for validation products they believe meet the national Standards. The list of financial institutions offering such products continues to expand across the country.
National Facts about the Unbanked or Underbanked
- Close to 4.5% of U.S. households (approximately 5.9 million adults) are “unbanked,” without a checking or savings account.
- Almost 14.1% of U.S. households (approximately 18.7 million adults) are underbanked, meaning they still use some fringe financial services.
- Nearly 29.2% of unbanked and 38.1% of underbanked households earn less than $30,000 per year.
- Nationally, 36% of Black households and 33.4% of Hispanic households are unbanked or underbanked, compared to less than 12% of white households.
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) Facts about the Unbanked and Underbanked
- In the Denver MSA, 5.9% of households are unbanked and 12.5% of households are underbanked.
Colorado Facts about the Unbanked and Underbanked
- In the state of Colorado, 6% of households are unbanked and 9% of households are underbanked.
Data Source: 2021 FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households
Our collective vision is to expand Bank On across the region to help more people. Bank On Denver “walks the talk” and helped launch, Bank On Boulder in October 2017, a new Bank On coalition serving Boulder, Lafayette, Longmont, Louisville and surrounding cities in collaboration with Boulder County Housing & Human Services and other community partners. For more information about bringing Bank On to your community and/or municipality, contact info@bankondenver.com.
The Bank On Denver Advisory Board serves as a critical community champion of Bank On Denver.
Our partners provide:
- Access to safe, affordable and convenient products
- Professional expertise
- Diverse knowledge of community perspectives
- Connections to local, state and national/federal resources
- Philanthropic support at the local level
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