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Fed researchers call for new definition of ‘unbanked’

Economists support paper’s more nuanced approach, but caution against dropping current terminology

Bank vault

Economists have given a cautious welcome to proposals to change how the “unbanked” population is measured in the US.

In a paper published this month, researchers with the Federal Reserve say the term “unbanked” should only apply to people who do not have a bank account but who want one. Those with no interest in obtaining an account should instead be classified as the “out of banking population”.

The paper’s authors, Elena Falcettoni and Vegard Mokleiv Nygaard, say that “while the unbanked mostly

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