This paper describes the U.S. financial system's response to the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina and examines how financial safety nets helped meet consumers' needs in the aftermath of the storm. Overall, we find that consumers who hold deposit accounts at financial institutions are less...

The roughly 9.5 percent of all U.S. families that are without some type of transaction account (unbanked) are disproportionately represented by minorities. The unbanked often must rely on alternative ways to carry out basic financial transactions such as cashing payroll checks and paying bills....

We examine the influence that geographic proximity to bank branches and (nonbank) alternative financial services providers has on use of financial transaction services among U.S. households. We specify a bivariate probit model of bank account ownership and use of nonbank transaction products to...

This study determines that the decisions to use nonbank financial services and to have a bank account are made jointly by immigrant and native born families. Immigrant families, especially those from Mexico or other Latin American countries, have a higher probability of using nonbank financial...