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Better Banking
Video

Better Banking

Lisa Servon
PopTech, 2013
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

Brava, Lisa Servon! In her superb presentation, the professor of urban policy explores the shortcomings of banking services for poor communities in the United States. Unlike most academics and policy makers, who have a tendency to postulate from afar about the needs to the poor, Servon climbed down from her ivory tower and got her hands dirty working at a check casher in a poverty-stricken neighborhood. Her gallant efforts were not in vain: Servon deftly found the root of the problem. getAbstract recommends Servon’s persuasive conclusions to policy makers, banking executives and oblivious middle-class Americans who assume that the poor need their systems.

Take-Aways

  • Between 2002 and 2012, the number of unbanked Americans rose from 10 million to 17 million. These people – concentrated in low-income neighborhoods – are increasingly turning to alternative financial services.
  • According to popular opinion, check cashers and payday lenders charge exorbitant fees and prey on the poor. Yet these institutions serve the poor better than banks do.
  • Banks are too expensive for those “living on the edge.” Bank fees are increasing and multiplying, and banks’ operations are not transparent.

About the Speaker

Lisa Servon is professor of urban policy at The New School in New York City. She wrote Bootstrap Capital.

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