Mobile App for Underbanked Looks to Go National
Fair Financial, a digital platform for the unbanked, recently launched in a pilot program to serve about 500 Twin Cities customers over the next 18 months. Anne Clark, an executive whose nonprofit is overseeing the rollout of Fair Financial, is partnering with several other organizations in the area, including Sunrise Banks. They have estalished a goal of providing 5,000 low-income customers across the country with Fair deposit accounts and small-dollar loans by 2020. What sets Fair apart in the industry is what Clark and others describe as a “bundled” suite of products for the underbanked. Customers can open low-cost checking and savings accounts, as well as take out a small-dollar loan that’s designed to help them bolster their credit scores. The accounts are provided through a cobranded partnership with Sunrise Banks, a $1.1 billion-asset community development financial institution in St. Paul.