Geoff Smith, Sarah Duda, and Malcolm Bush

This report demonstrates that measuring how well a bank provides basic banking services to low-wealth consumers could be done using existing data. Using proprietary data collected from two bank branches located in low-wealth communities, it shows that the type of transaction level data, previously thought to be unavailable to regulators and costly to collect for financial institutions, is routinely collected by at least one large bank for marketing purposes.

Geoff Smith

Tim Westrich and Malcolm Bush

Bounce protection, a product that is regularly offered to many bank customers as a convenience, has turned into an excessively priced loan program, key features of which are hidden from consumers. This report analyzes the fee structure of bounce protection products offered by several major Chicago region banks.

Geoff Smith

Reinvestment Alert 22: Where Banks Aren't: Despite Growth in Chicago Area Bank Offices, Low-Income and Minority Communities Remain Underrepresented.