Because financial transactions are important for wealth accumulation, and rely on trust and confidence in institutions, the financial market behavior of immigrants can provide important insights into the assimilation process. Compared to the native-born, immigrants are less likely to own savings...

We find that wealthier and more educated immigrants are more likely to make use of basic banking services and other formal financial services. Holding these (and other) factors constant, we find immigrants from countries with more effective institutions are more likely to have a relationship...

The location of bank branches is an important issue for consumer advocates and other groups that monitor access to financial services for low- and moderate income people. The proximity of banks and their branches to the places where people live and work is one basic element of mainstream...

In 2005, the Federal Reserve System and the Aspen Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program launched a national conference series to explore the state of the community development finance industry. A further goal was to document lessons and practices primarily from the for-profit sector, and...

The Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund came into existence in 1995 with the mission to "expand the capacity of financial institutions to provide credit, capital and financial services to underserved populations and communities in the United States" Since the recent economic...

We assess the effects of geographic expansion on bank efficiency using cost and profit efficiency for over 7,000 U.S. banks, 1993-1998. We find that parent organizations exercise some control over the efficiency of their affiliates, although this control tends to dissipate with distance to the...