Nearly one in ten Kentuckians doesn’t have a bank account. That’s one of the findings in a new report issued by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
The FDIC report says 9.9% of Kentuckians have no banking account. The number is higher in Tennessee, at 10.9%, and lower in Indiana, at 7.8%.
While only a little more than one-third of the U.S. population lives in southern states, nearly half of all unbanked households reside in the region. Poorer households often refrain from establishing bank accounts because of concerns over monthly checking fees. But some analysts caution that fees for alternative financial services—such as check-cashers, payday loans, or money orders—are often much higher than monthly bank account fees.
Some people who can afford the fees choose not to open accounts because they don’t trust banks following the financial meltdown that started in 2008.
Nationwide, 8.2% of households don’t have bank accounts.
