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Banks avoid minority areas

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By FRANK BASS and LINDA STEWART BALL The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 19, 2009

DALLAS - Banks expanded at a breathtaking pace in the past five years, adding more than 10,000 full-service branches, but barely 1 in 10 were in inner-city minority neighborhoods.

This means millions of people who don't live near a bank have had to hand over $2, $5 or $10 at a time - sometimes more - in service fees to nonbank outlets to conduct transactions such as cashing checks or paying bills that most bank customers take for granted.

Data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. shows that the nation's banks followed the money. About two-thirds of all neighborhoods have a median household income higher than the national average; about two-thirds of the new bank branches were opened in those neighborhoods.

An AP analysis, however, found that branches were not added at a proportionate rate in minority neighborhoods. About one-third of the neighborhoods analyzed are predominantly minority, according to the U.S. Census Bureau; only about 1 in 10 new bank branches showed up in those areas.

The Associated Press

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