Summary:
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation today announced a ‘tech sprint’ designed to explore new technologies and techniques that would help expand the capabilities of banks to meet the needs of unbanked individuals and households.
Statement of Applicability: This Financial Institution Letter applies to all FDIC-supervised financial institutions.
Highlights:
- The FDIC’s tech lab, FDITECH, is launching a first-of-its-kind ‘tech sprint,’ challenging participants to identify better resources and tools to help banks get unbanked households into the banking system and to keep them banked.
- The FDIC recently published How America Banks, the agency’s latest survey of household use of banking and financial services. This study found that while nearly 95 percent of U.S. households were banked (i.e., had a bank or credit union account), more than seven million households were unbanked.
- Given the challenges reaching the ‘last mile’ of unbanked households, the FDIC seeks tech sprint participants to help answer the following question:
“Which data, tools, and other resources could help community banks meet the needs of the unbanked population in a cost-effective manner, and how might the impact of this work be measured?”
- In a few weeks, FDITECH will open registration for the tech sprint. Interested parties will have two weeks to submit applications requesting participation. After a brief review of submissions, FDITECH will invite a select number of teams to participate. Selected teams will attend a kick-off meeting and then work on their proposed solutions for a period of approximately three weeks. Finally, FDITECH will host a ‘Demo Day,’ inviting teams to make short presentations to a panel of experts who will evaluate their submission.
- Read more about FDITECH’s tech sprint, Breaking Down Barriers: Reaching the Last Mile of Unbanked U.S. Households.
- Any additional questions about the tech sprint can be sent to Innovation@FDIC.gov.
Distribution:
FDIC-Supervised Institutions
Suggested Routing:
Chief Executive Officer
Compliance Officer
Chief Information/Technology Officer
Related Topics:
Information Technology/Cybersecurity