Sections
Neighborhoods
Features
Follow Us
NHI Newsletter
Legal Notices
Some Favorite Sites
- At Risk for HD
- barista
- Branford Eagle
- Business NH
- Chris Volpe Photography
- Crosscut
- CT Capitol Report
- CT Enviro Headlines
- CT Local Politics
- CT Mirror
- CT News Junkie
- CT Watchdog
- Design New Haven
- Gotham Gazette
- I Love New Haven
- Josiah Brown
- Karman Turn
- La Voz Hispana
- Laurel Club
- Media Nation
- Middletown Eye
- MinnPost
- My Left Nutmeg
- NH Register
- NH Review of Books
- NHV.org
- OneWorld
- Only In Bridgeport
- Oral History Project
- Reddit NH
- See Click Fix
- Smartpill Design
- St. Louis Beacon
- Taste Of NH
- Tom Ficklin
- Valley Independent Sentinel
- Voice of SD
- VT Digger
- WTNH
- Yale Daily News
Government/ Community Links
- Advocate Calendar
- Agency on Aging
- Animal Shelter Volunteers
- Arte Inc.
- Arts Council
- Beth El Keser Israel
- Bike New Haven
- Cancer Support
- Chabad of Westville
- Chamber of Commerce
- Children’s Museum
- City of New Haven
- CitySeed
- Citywide Youth
- Community Loan Fund
- Community Mediation
- ConnCAN
- Creative Arts Workshop
- CT BAEO
- CT Best Restaurants
- CT Tech Council
- Dariba Referrals
- Data Haven
- Elm City Cycling
- Elmseed
- Empower NH
- Friends Of Wooster Sq.
- GAVA
- GNH Community Chorus
- Habitat For Humanity
- Info New Haven
- IRIS
- Jazz Haven
- Jewish Federation
- Job Finder
- Junta
- Labor History
- LEAP
- Legal Aid Network
- Literacy Coalition
- Magrisso Forte
- Mary Wade
- Music Haven
- Neighborhood Music School
- New Haven 828
- New Haven Chorale
- New Haven Reads
- New Life Corp.
- NH Bulletin
- NH Land Trust
- NH Symphony
- NH/Leon Sister City
- NHS
- Orchestra NE
- PAR
- Parents Available to Help
- Pat Dillon
- Peace News
- PechaKucha
- Planned Parenthood
- Police
- Promoting Enduring Peace
- Public Allies CT
- Public Library
- Public Schools
- Public Works
- Rainbow Girls
- Register Calendar
- REX
- ROOF
- SAMA
- SCSU Events
- Share Our Voices
- Shubert
- Solar Youth
- Soul-O-Ettes
- Squash Haven
- United Way
- Urban Design League
- Urban Resources Initiative
- Ward 25 Blog
- Ward 26 Blog
- Westville Renaissance
- Westville Synagogue
- Workforce Alliance
- Yale Events
- Yeshiva NH Shul
- Yeshiva Of NH
- Youth Continuum
The Great “Unbanked” Get A Hand
by Paul Bass | Jul 27, 2012 8:11 am
(10) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author
Posted to: Business/ Economic Development
Some 73,000 Connecticut households—a majority of them black or Latino—don’t have bank accounts. The state wants to change that.
It has launched an experiment in five cities—New Haven, Derby, Bridgeport, Norwalk, and Stamford—to work with local not-for-profits and banks to try to reach more of those people.
Call them the “unbanked.”
Officials called them that on Thursday when they held a press conference at New Haven City Hall to announce the experiment, called “Bank on Connecticut.”
State Treasurer Denise Nappier was there. So was Liz Dupont-Diehl, the director of Connecticut Association for Human Services, which put the program together with her office.
They chose a not-for-profit agency and a bank in each city to make that happen. The not-for-profit will recruit people without accounts, instruct them on the advantages of opening them (as opposed to, say, getting gouged by payday lenders or check-cashing outlets). The people will then be brought to the bank to open accounts, in some cases at dramatic discounts.
Thursday’s New Haven event featured the New Haven and Derby duos. In Derby, TEAM Inc. will bring customers to Webster Bank, which will allow them to open free-checking accounts with just $50; people usually need at least $1,000. In New Haven, Junta for Progressive Action will recruit and educate customers to bring to START Bank, the community lender launched in 2010.
START already has active programs aimed at the “unbanked.” (Read about its latest program here.) It already offers free accounts to people with low incomes and low savings. It opens accounts for teens working summer jobs through a city program and encourages them to save money, for instance. It has converted 30 percent of the 284 customers who cash payroll checks there into account holders, helping them avoid large cashing fees; it will also hold smaller fees in escrow, and let them keep the money if they maintain a balance. It graduated 2,364 students from a financial-literacy “Loot Camp.” (Read about that here.)
Still, START will definitely benefit from “Bank on Connecticut” because of the new effort to recruit people through JUNTA and teach them about smart financial management, said bank Vice-President Lynn Smith.
Tags: Bank On Connecticut, START Bank, Webster Bank, Junta For Progressive Action, Lynn Smith, Denise Nappier
Post a Comment
Comments
posted by: Threefifths on July 27, 2012 10:30am
Again Snake oil and three card monte being sold.As Matt Taibbi, of Rolling Stone magazine wrote.The banks are beneath your average street thug. The Banks have systematically ripped off almost everyone with whom it has a significant business relationship, cheating investors, insurers, depositors, homeowners, shareholders, pensioners and taxpayers. It brought tens of thousands of Americans to foreclosure court using bogus, “robo-signed” evidence - a type of mass perjury that it helped pioneer. It hawked worthless mortgages. How come credit unions are not at this table.In fact credit unions give the people more vice then banks.
Banking - the Greatest Scam on Earth.
posted by: Michelle Perez on July 27, 2012 12:10pm
That is why you need to come to one of our workshops, to learn more about the process of educating people about banking, something that the industry will not do and that is the reason why many people think the negative way that you do.
posted by: Lynn Smith on July 27, 2012 2:06pm
ThreeFifths - Please feel free to come and meet with me any time to learn more about what Start Community Bank is doing in our community. I cannot speak for other institutions, but we are very proud of the work we do every day in the communities that need, and want, transparency, fairness, coaching and support.
Come open a savings account that currently pays .45% APY starting at $20, with no minimum balance and no monthly service charge. Come open a free checking account with no minimum balance and no monthly service charge. Bring your child to open a savings account with $1 with no monthly service charge. Learn about our Second Chance Account, and our FeeKeeper account that turns check cashing fees into savings deposits.
Talk to all the social service agencies and schools where we have given classes—free.
Remember as well that we pay federal tax, unlike the credit unions, so we carry that extra burden of cost.
We are very proud of the work we do, and our customers are proud of us and bank with us because of that work.
Lynn Smith, Senior Vice President
Start Community Bank
posted by: Threefifths on July 27, 2012 3:45pm
posted by: Michelle Perez on July 27, 2012 12:10pm
That is why you need to come to one of our workshops, to learn more about the process of educating people about banking, something that the industry will not do and that is the reason why many people think the negative way that you do.
Negative way.Disprove me wrong.Are you sayiing that corrupt foreclosures and repossessions are a series of mistakes by overzealous banks.Aski the people who have lost homes.what they think about banks.It is people like you live under the misconception that banks are ethical, well intentioned institutions that seek to serve the customer. Sadly, this isn’t remotely accurate. Banks use underhand tactics to help customers part with cash.
When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes… Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.” – Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, 1815
Prove me wrong.
posted by: Threefifths on July 27, 2012 4:38pm
posted by: Lynn Smith on July 27, 2012 2:06pm
ThreeFifths - Please feel free to come and meet with me any time to learn more about what Start Community Bank is doing in our community. I cannot speak for other institutions, but we are very proud of the work we do every day in the communities that need, and want, Come open a savings account that currently pays .45% APY starting at $20, with no minimum balance and no monthly service charge. Come open a free checking account with no minimum balance and no monthly service charge. Bring your child to open a savings account with $1 with no monthly service charge. Learn about our Second Chance Account, and our FeeKeeper account that turns check cashing fees into savings deposits. fairness, coaching and support.
You may not speak for the other institutions.But you all are the same.I have been a memember of the credit union since 1970.Credit unions have more transparency then banks.Also I have a voice and a vote as to how the credit union can run.People don’t have this with a bank.
Come open a savings account that currently pays .45% APY starting at $20, with no minimum balance and no monthly service charge. Come open a free checking account with no minimum balance and no monthly service charge. Bring your child to open a savings account with $1 with no monthly service charge. Learn about our Second Chance Account, and our FeeKeeper account that turns check cashing fees into savings deposits.
You said transparency.If this is the case how come your bank website does not show the Interest rates for loans.
Talk to all the social service agencies and schools where we have given classes—free.
Remember as well that we pay federal tax, unlike the credit unions, so we carry that extra burden of cost.
We are very proud of the work we do, and our customers are proud of us and bank with us because of that work.
If most people were educated about credit unions they would leave banks in a heart beat.
“The few who understand the system will either be so interested in its profits or be so dependent upon its favours that there will be no opposition from that class.
The Rothschild brothers of London writing to associates in New York, 1863.
posted by: RCguy on July 27, 2012 10:19pm
I would love if threefifths changed the way he posted. Copying and pasting the entire comment of the person he is responding to makes it difficult for the average reader to determine where his opinion really starts. also, there seems to be a good number of periods(.) in place of Question Marks (?). I am not patronizing here, i know three fifths is super intelligent (much more so than the average poster) but, I think to myself, what if his
comments were more readable.
posted by: OccupyTheClassroom on July 28, 2012 11:36am
Why did START choose to go the banking route instead of opening a credit union?
Unbank with Connex, or other local credit unions.
posted by: RCguy on July 28, 2012 4:00pm
... and please don’t stop educating the the local bankers!
“You said transparency.If this is the case how come your bank website does not show the Interest rates for loans.”
posted by: Threefifths on July 28, 2012 11:36pm
The Banker” Explains It All.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=peX4dBEF0Vg#!
