An analysis by the New York Federal Reserve finds that low-income neighborhoods are increasingly devolving into “banking deserts” with inadequate financial services. The researchers found that people in low-income tracts are 80 percent more likely to live in a banking desert than their counterparts in higher income tracts. From 2009 to 2014, the fraction of residents living in low-income tracts that are also banking deserts increased by about 0.2 percentage points, more than twice the rate for residents in higher income tracts. However, the analysis also found that residents of majority-minority tracts were actually less likely to live in a banking desert than their counterparts in non-minority tracts, reflecting the fact that majority-minority tracts are more likely located in urban areas where thick branch networks are sustainable.