Rubén Hinojosa: “recently, I held my Fifth Regional Leaders Issues Conference in the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. Over…”

“recently, I held my Fifth Regional Leaders Issues Conference in the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. Over 140 of my constituents attended the conference, including elected officials, presidents of universities, educators, heads of chambers of commerce, and many other community leaders in the 15th District of Texas. On Tuesday, June 13, 2006, I was honored to have Dr. Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, give remarks to the conferees. He referenced data from the Survey of Consumers Finances, which is a triennial survey sponsored by the Federal Reserve Board. The latest survey revealed some discouraging and alarming statistics: Households whose income placed them in the bottom fifth of the population were less likely than the average respondent to maintain a checking or savings account, and almost 25 percent of those families were unbanked compared to less than 10 percent of families in the other income levels. According to the survey, reasons given for not having an account varied. Some respondents said they would not write enough checks to make having an account worthwhile; others were dissuaded by minimum balance requirements, or said that they did not have enough money to justify opening a bank account. Chairman Bernanke noted that, in some cases, consumers lacked the knowledge about the services that banks offer, including deposit insurance, or even misunderstood the important role banks play in our economy.…”