North Carolina Financial Services Survey

Publication Date

October 2001

Author(s)

Michael A. Stegman, Robert Faris

Client/Funder

North Carolina Division of Social Services

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Researchers assessed the composition and needs of unbanked working N.C. families and whether North Carolina should expand financial services as part of welfare reform.

In early 2000, the North Carolina Division of Social Services asked the center to conduct the North Carolina Financial Services Survey. The survey was designed to accomplish four objectives:

• Determine the size and composition of the unbanked population of working class North Carolinians, and their reasons for not owning any kind of transaction account at mainstream financial institutions.
• Identify the factors that limit these households’ access to such services.
• Gain a greater understanding of how unbanked and banked working families meet their financial services needs, and determine the extent to which their choices are market-driven or a function of other factors.
• Determine whether the NC Division of Social Services should make greater access to mainstream financial services and asset-building an integral part of the state’s welfare reform system and, if so, how.