Record number of Americans have bank accounts, gov’t says

By KEN SWEET and SAMANTHA HENDRICKSON
The Associated Press / Report for America

NEW YORK (AP) — The number of Americans who do not have a bank account fell to a record low last year, as the proliferation of online-only banks and an improving economy is bringing more Americans into the traditional financial system. A new report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued Tuesday found that 4.5% of Americans _ representing approximately 5.9 million households _ were without a bank account in 2021. That’s the lowest level since the FDIC started tracking the data in 2009 and down from 5.4% of Americans in the 2019 survey data.