The Center for Financial Services Innovation Announces Results of Urban Segmentation Study; Survey of LMI Consumers Reveals Potential Pathways to Success

Business Wire, Sept 14, 2005

CHICAGO -- The Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) released its latest paper today, "Getting to Know Underbanked Consumers: A Financial Services Analysis." The study, which was supported by the Fannie Mae Foundation, analyzes a survey of urban lower and middle income consumers that was underwritten by the Ford, MacArthur, and Annie E. Casey Foundations, as well as the Fannie Mae Foundation. This groundbreaking research segments these consumers with the thoroughness and detail traditional market research firms provide on higher income customers, and reveals sub-segments and financial behavior patterns that could help financial institutions and companies seeking to expand their customer base to build lasting, organic growth. E[acute accent]BAI Banking Strategies is covering the study in the inaugural edition of its newsletter, "Retail Delivery Insights," also available today. The full report is available on CFSI's web site at http://www.cfsinnovation.com/managed_documents/seg.pdf. The Fannie Mae Foundation's KnowledgePlex is offering a related chat on Tuesday, October 11 at 2:00 p.m. EDT. The chat will have both an audio and an online component; participants will include CFSI's Director, Jennifer Tescher, and Ellen Seidman, one of the authors of the study, as well as bankers working in this area. For more information about the chat, or to attend the session, visit http://www.knowledgeplex.org/xchat.html, and scroll down to "Getting to Know Underbanked Consumers." E[acute accent]"This research is an important first step in filling the void of information about the financial behavior and attitudes of low- to moderate-income urban populations," said Stacey D. Stewart, president and CEO of the Fannie Mae Foundation. "The pathways revealed by the study can help move this overlooked and underserved population into the financial mainstream." E[acute accent]Ellen Seidman commented, "To me, the most exciting aspect of the research was the identification of paired clusters, which can help institutions identify promising prospects early on and offer products and programs to develop them into long-term, profitable customers." E[acute accent]With this latest release, CFSI continues to build on its body of significant research on how best to bring underbanked Americans into the financial mainstream, and enable them to build lasting assets.

E[acute accent]About CFSI:

E[acute accent]The Center for Financial Services Innovation, an initiative of ShoreBank Advisory Services, was founded in 2004 with support from The Ford Foundation. Its mission is to facilitate efforts to offer underbanked consumers across the economic, geographic and cultural spectrum asset-building opportunities that create value for both customers and companies. It provides funding and resources, enables partnerships, and develops and distributes authoritative information on how to respond to the needs of the underbanked both profitably and responsibly. CFSI works with banks, credit unions, technology vendors, alternative service providers, consumer advocates, and policy makers to forge pioneering relationships, products and strategies that will transform industry practice and the lives of underbanked consumers. For more on CFSI, go to www.cfsinnovation.com.