The Center for Financial Services Innovation has released the results of a survey on “underbanked” consumers. They define underbanked consumers as “those that may have a current checking account and/or current savings account and have made one or more non-bank fnancial transactions in the past 30 days.

Survey findings:

• US underbanked population: 40 million households (106 million individuals)
• Household Income: $26,390 (median), $47,500 (mean)
• Ethnicity: White (Non-Hispanic)60%, Hispanic- 19%, Black(Non-Hispanic)-16%, Other- 5%
• Homeownership: 63% own, 28% rent, 8% live rent free
• Adults living in household: Three (mean)
• Marital Status: 29% never married, 27% married,16% divorced/separated, 8% widowed
• Children in household: 45% yes

“Some underbanked consumers have bad credit. Others may just have little or no credit history.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a bad risk,” said Jennifer Tescher, director of the Center for Financial Services Innovation in Chicago, which studies the underbanked market. “It means we don’t know what risk they are because we don’t have data about them.”