Banked, Under-

The underbanked are physical and legal persons who do not have appropriate access to mainstream (retail) banking/financial services and hence are exposed to providers of nonmainstream financial services (loan sharks, car title lenders, payday loan stores, rent-to-own stores, financial predators, etc.). The term underbanked and the associated term unbanked are predominantly used in the United States and are rarely found in finance and banking literature outside the United States. In the U.S. context, the banking and financial services offered by nonmainstream providers are referred to as alternative financial services (AFS). In the United States, the market for AFS amounted to $320 billion in 2009.

Although underbanking is usually associated with what is traditionally called economically nonviable individual customers, the underbanked can include small and medium enterprises, ...