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The number of American households that were unbanked last year dropped to its lowest level since 2009, a dip due in part to people opening accounts to receive financial assistance during the pandemic, a new report says.  

Roughly 4.5% of U.S. households – or 5.9 million – didn't have a checking or savings account with a bank or credit union in 2021, a record low, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's most recent survey of unbanked and underbanked households. 

Roughly 45% of households that received a stimulus payment, jobless benefits or other government assistance after the start of the pandemic in March, 2020 said those funds helped compel them to open an account, according to the biennial report which has been conducted since 2009.

"Safe and affordable bank accounts provide a way to bring more Americans into the banking system and will continue to play an important role in advancing economic inclusion for all Americans,'' FDIC acting chairman Martin J. Gruenberg said in a statement.  

A lack of banking options delayed some households from getting federal payments aimed at helping the country weather the economic fallout from the COVID-19 health crisis.

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The FDIC initiated an educational campaign to get more Americans to open an account to enable the direct deposit of those funds. And banks such as Capital One and Ally Financial ended  overdraft and other fees that have been a key barrier to some Americans accessing the banking system. 

What does it mean to be unbanked?

A household is deemed unbanked when no one in the home has an account with a bank or credit union. That share of households has dropped by nearly half since 2009. And since 2011, when 8% of U.S. households were unbanked, the highest since the start of the survey, and the record low reached in 2021, roughly half of the drop was due to a shift in the financial circumstances of American households the FDIC says.

Who are the underbanked?

Those who have a checking or savings account, but also use financial alternatives like check cashing services are considered underbanked. The underbanked represented 14% of U.S. households, or 18.7 million, last year.   

Why are people unbanked or underbanked?

Many of those who are unbanked say they can't afford to have an account because of the fees for insufficient funds and overdrafts that are tacked on when account balances fall short. Roughly 29% said fees or not having the required minimum balance were the primary reasons they didn't have a checking or savings account, as compared to 38% who cited those obstacles in 2019.

Are some groups more likely to be unbanked? 

The numbers of the unbanked were greater among households that included those who were working age and disabled, lower income, included a single mother, or were Black or Hispanic. Among white households for instance, 2% didn't have a bank account last year as compared to 11% and 9% of their Black and Hispanic counterparts.

Meanwhile, nearly 15% of households with a working age member who had a disability were unbanked compared to almost 4% of other households. And  nearly 16% of households with a single mother were unbanked as compared to about 2% of married couples who lacked an account. 

 "These gaps attest there's still a lot of opportunity to expand participation across the population in the banking system,'' Keith Ernst, Associate Director of Consumer Research and Examination Analytics at the FDIC, said during a media call about the report.            

Will the number of unbanked rise if the U.S. has a recession? 

Perhaps.

"During the last recession unbanked rates did indeed go up,'' Karyen Chu, chief of the Banking Research Section at the Center for Financial Research, said during the call. 

Additionally, last year, homes where the head of household was out of work were nearly five times more likely to not have a bank account as compared to those where the household head was employed.

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"To the extent that income goes down ... that has generally been associated with increases in unbanked rates,’’ Chu said. 

Washington, D.C. – Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued guidance about two junk fee practices that are likely unfair and unlawful under existing law. The first, surprise overdraft fees, includes overdraft fees charged when consumers had enough money in their account to cover a debit charge at the time the bank authorizes it. The second is the practice of indiscriminately charging depositor fees to every person who deposits a check that bounces. The penalty is an unexpected shock to depositors who thought they were increasing their funds.

“Americans are willing to pay for legitimate services at a competitive price, but are frustrated when they are hit with junk fees for unexpected or unwanted services that have no value to them,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “We are providing guidance on existing law that will help law-abiding businesses seeking to fairly compete and the families they serve.”

Overdraft and depositor fees likely violate the Consumer Financial Protection Act prohibition on unfair practices when consumers cannot reasonably avoid them. Today’s Consumer Financial Protection Circular on surprise overdraft fees and the CFPB’s compliance bulletin on surprise depositor fees lay out when a financial institution’s back-end penalties likely break the law.

Surprise Depositor Fees

When a consumer deposits a check that bounces, banks sometimes charge a fee to the depositor, usually in the range of $10 to $19. However, a person trying to deposit a check has no idea or control over whether the check will clear, and sometimes, that person is the victim of check fraud. In fact, there are many reasons deposited checks can bounce, and the most common reason is that the check originator does not have enough money available in their account. Charging a fee to the depositor penalizes the person who could not anticipate the check would bounce, while doing nothing to deter the originator from writing bad checks.

The bulletin explains that indiscriminately charging these depositor fees, regardless of circumstances, likely violates the Consumer Financial Protection Act. Financial institutions can generally stay on the right side of the law when they employ more tailored fee policies that charge depositor fees only in situations where a depositor could have avoided the fee, such as when a depositor repeatedly deposits bad checks from the same originator.

Surprise Overdraft Fees

An overdraft fee can become a surprise fee when the customer doesn’t reasonably expect their actions to incur an overdraft fee. For instance, even if a person closely monitors their account balances and carefully manages their spending to avoid overdraft fees, they can easily incur penalties when financial institutions employ processes that are unintelligible or manipulative.

Today’s Consumer Financial Protection Circular explains that when financial institutions charge surprise overdraft fees, sometimes as much as $36, they may be breaking the law. The circular provides some examples of potentially unlawful surprise overdraft fees, including charging penalties on purchases made with a positive balance. These overdraft fees occur when a bank displays that a customer has sufficient available funds to complete a debit card purchase at the time of the transaction, but the consumer is later charged an overdraft fee. Often, the financial institution relies on complex back-office practices to justify charging the fee. For instance, after the bank allows one debit card transaction when there is sufficient money in the account, it nonetheless charges a fee on that transaction later because of intervening transactions.

In September 2022, the CFPB took action against Regions Bank for charging surprise overdraft fees known as authorized positive fees. As early as 2015 the CFPB, as well as other federal regulators, including the Federal Reserve, began cautioning financial institutions against charging certain types of authorized positive fees, such as the ones used by Regions to unlawfully penalize customers. Regions is required to, among other consequences, reimburse consumers all the funds it unlawfully charged since August 2018 and pay a $50 million penalty.

Today’s Consumer Financial Protection Circular on surprise overdraft fees and its bulletin on surprise deposited item fees are just the latest announcements as part of the CFPB’s junk fee initiative, one of many efforts across the federal government to increase competition and reduce unnecessary financial burdens on American families.

Junk Fee Initiative

In January 2022, the CFPB launched an initiative to scrutinize back-end junk fees that cost Americans billions of dollars. Tens of thousands of people responded to a CFPB Request for Information with their stories and complaints about unnecessary fees in banking. Since then, the CFPB has taken action to constrain “pay-to-pay” fees, and has announced a rulemaking proceeding on credit card late fees. In the last year, the CFPB has also published several research reports on overdraft fees and an analysis of college banking products.

The CFPB has observed that financial institutions have started to compete more when it comes to fees. Earlier this year multiple banks announced they were eliminating overdraft fees or updating their policies to be more consumer friendly. And, in recent months, multiple large banks announced that they are eliminating non-sufficient fund fees on their checking accounts. The CFPB estimates that these changes mean $3 billion in savings for consumers.

Read today’s Consumer Financial Protection Circular, Surprise Overdraft Fee assessment practices .

Read today’s compliance bulletin .

Read the CFPB’s recent enforcement action against Regions Bank for charging surprise overdraft fees.

Learn about the CFPB’s work on junk fees at consumerfinance.gov/JunkFees.

Consumers can submit complaints about overdraft and depositor fees, as well as about other financial products or services, by visiting the CFPB’s website or by calling (855) 411-CFPB (2372).

Employees who believe their companies have violated federal consumer financial protection laws are encouraged to send information about what they know to [email protected].

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