FDIC: Over 16 percent in Miss. can’t access banks

Published 4:03 pm Friday, December 4, 2009

Federal banking regulators say 16.4 percent of Mississippi households — 184,000 households — don’t have a bank account or access to banking services.

Mississippi’s 16.4 percent “unbanked” figure is double the national average of 7.7 percent in the report released Wednesday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

A total of 282,000 households, or 25.2 percent, are considered “underbanked,” meaning they have a bank account of some sort but also use payday loans, check-cashing services and other costly alternatives to traditional banks. That compares to about 18 percent nationally.

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The FDIC says black residents, non-homeowners and households that earn less than $30,000 annually are more unlikely to have a checking or savings account in Mississippi.