Search Results
Briefing
How Much Do Nonbank Transaction Accounts Improve Access to Digital Payments for Unbanked Households?
Nonbank transaction accounts—such as prepaid card accounts or accounts with online payment service providers—can help unbanked households make safe and affordable digital payments. But data suggest that they may not be sufficient to achieve digital payments inclusion. Less than half of unbanked households had these accounts in 2021; the rest either used paper-based transaction products or relied solely on cash.
Briefing
How the COVID-19 Pandemic May Reshape the Digital Payments Landscape
Despite an increase in payments made via online or mobile channels in recent years, many consumers have not yet adopted digital payments. The COVID-19 pandemic may be shifting more consumers toward digital payments, along with industry and legislative initiatives designed to facilitate broader access.
Working Paper
Defining Households That Are Underserved in Digital Payment Services
US households that lack digital means of making and receiving payments cannot participate fully in an increasingly digitized economy. Assessing the scope of this problem and addressing it requires a definition of households that are underserved in digital payments. Traditional definitions of households underserved in the banking system—those that are unbanked and those that are underbanked—do not account for the ownership of nonbank transaction accounts that can be used to make and receive digital payments. In this paper, we define households underserved in digital payments by considering ...
Briefing
Cash Bill Pay Services and Payment Inclusion in the United States
Cash bill pay, a service that allows consumers to pay bills with cash at participating retailers, may be one way to promote payment inclusion in the increasingly digitized U.S. economy. With this service, consumers who prefer to use cash, or those without a transaction account, can have in-person, tangible experiences paying bills.
Journal Article
Digital Currency, Digital Payments, and the 'Last Mile' to the Unbanked
Digital forms of payment are either not accessible or highly costly for unbanked consumers. This is because these forms of payment must be "funded" by some source of money, such as cash or a bank account. That creates the "last-mile" problem for the unbanked. This article examines various solutions for the funding problem that have been proposed in the literature, by regulators, and in bills submitted to Congress.
Discussion Paper
COVID-19 and the Search for Digital Alternatives to Cash
Today, the majority of retail payments in the United States are digital. Practically all digital payments are tracked, collected, and aggregated by financial institutions, payment providers, and vendors. This trend has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic as payments that require physical contact, such as cash, have been discouraged. As cash gradually becomes obsolete, consumers are left with fewer alternatives for making private transactions. In this post, we outline some evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on consumer payment behavior and follow up in the second post in this Liberty ...